Bunge’s Causality and the Laws of Economics

Abstract

This paper deals with the analysis of the nature of economic relations from the perspective of Mario Bunge’s idea of causality. According to Bunge, causality cannot be regarded as the universal connection of phenomena. The application of Bunge’s concept to economics leads to the development of the hypothesis of the non-causal determination of economic phenomena. The contradiction between the non-causal nature of economic phenomena and the dominant causal paradigm in economic theory are shown and discussed. The hypothesis of non-causal determinations allows to explain an ongoing argument between monetarists and Keynesians, the viability of the different schools of economic thought, the existence of the radical criticism of neoclassical economics, the isolation of economic theory from applied economic disciplines.

Keywords: philosophy of science, causality, determination, non-causal determinations, causal and non-causal law, determinations and laws of economics

JEL Classification: B41