Vienna School

Lots of time has gone into getting the econoblog going. But, the viewpoint being established here will still have a basis and will need foundational work.

Actually, it still fundamental, to boot. Take undecidability, for example. It's a term that will be thrown in the mix with underdetermined and more.

One way to look at it here, though, since the Vienna School somewhat stresses its importance, is the old conflict between two views that seem polar but are not really. That is, we can know bottom up and top down.

Over here, in the manifest destiny part of the west, we see bottom up as more important. Some of us do so anyway especially in its support of middle-out. There are those here who are like the old aristocracy (that side of the pond) and really love top down.

Well, being bottom up, we like what we can know and learn. We're so enthusiastic about it that we then accumulate and think that our little collection of pieces goes together nicely. In fact, we're so sure that we're correct that we force ourselves on the rest of the world.

On the other side of the pond, with their longer history, they know what a mess bottom up can be. Too, though, they know top down to an extent that we, over here, haven't had a chance to appreciate yet.

Yes, top down is a mess, too. That's where undecidability comes in. The bottom up guy will adapt his measures to see what he needs. Ah yes. As if this were some revelation that we all need to accept. But, the real top down view, that rides on the bottom up, knows that no collection of pieces is a whole.

Ever. Science really knows that; anyway, those who get beyond their gaming (you see, gaming is the essence of the human existence; though, I'm not talking von Neumann, necessarily.).

Actually, one way to look at this is that nothing is until it is. What? Yes, don't you see those computational people talking about their little prognostications (of many variety) as if they were real and already established (see 700ps7 and outhoused).

Trouble is, as we discuss these things, there are those who daily grind out more mis-balance as they have the okay (for now), the access (for now), and the computational prowess to do their deeds (move monies into their pockets out of those of the hapless). One would hope that, at some point, we can 'truth engineer' some type of daily accounting.

Well, used the Vienna School, more or less, as a marker for the analysis, somewhat analogous to using Minsky to talk about how the unstable comes about in our financial affairs.

Remarks:

03/23/2012 -- Renewal of the idea (and related energies) via Cooper and CiE.

11/02/2010 -- A year later, the message is the same, except some changes have occurred. Of real note is that the jobless rate is high; out-housing really set up for that. Also, we need to re-look at that learned from the 'von' guys, Ludwig and Friedrich. See Near Zero.

09/09/09 -- We'll need to look at UUUN, as a framework.

09/08/2009 -- See Econoblog II.

09/02/2009 -- Let's put undecidability on the table, please.

Modified: 03/23/2012