Theoretical and Applied Economics
No. 3 / 2011 (556)
Antithetic Foundations of Economics
Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies
Abstract. This paper aims at decrypting the manner in which the foundations of Economics as a science and the meanings of the relevant explanatory formulas are being shaped. My analytical endeavor focuses on understanding the peculiarities of what is referred to as the object of study of the science known as Economics, an academic synthesis of concept-related breakthroughs regarding economicity. The explicit purpose of this analysis is to identify perennial benchmarks in economic cognition whereby this ensures its consistency. The implicit purpose is to shape a cognitive model in line with the specifics of the conceptual universe of Economics, as well as with the sources of the economic realities that are subject to a sui-generis relativism. The primary benefit of this endeavor consists in systemizing the conceptual prospects with an antithetic nature that allow for the explanations of the state of economic rationality and generate the understanding of what the source of economicity is and how it behaves. As such, the conclusions are marked by the stringent need of more precisely defining economic knowledge in order to match the changing nature of economic reality, as an expression that embraces the meeting point of two ontological vistas that are methodologically separated by some theories: human nature and human condition. Economics as a science thus features, apart from a conceptual substrate that needs to be spotted, an ontological background that needs to be revealed. The role played by this background appears to be most frequently ignored. The joint identification of both direct and contextual determinants for a sensitive area of humankind, i.e. the economy, is a direction to be followed by the royal path of rational knowledge.
Contents
Antithetic Foundations of Economics
Capital Budgeting: a Tax Shields’ “Mirage”?
Convergence of the Policies for Promoting Total Quality Management in the Public Administrations of Balkan States – European Union Member States
Industrial District as a Corporation
Aspects of the Normalization of Managerial Accounting in Romania on a Microeconomic Level
An Analysis of the Correlation between Size and Performance of Private Pension Funds
Management of the Environmental Risk – an Economic-Social Priority
Implications of European Directives in the Assessment of Insurance Companies