[ExI] Economic laws

[Dan]

--- On Fri, 5/1/09, Aware <aware at awareresearch.com> wrote:
> BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I much prefer a 'law' that says if you do x, then y
>> will *always* happen.  That's my kind of law.
> 
> Nothing at all wrong with such "laws", or rather principles
> describing
> observed regularities.  The problem here (as often
> within these
> "rationalist" forums), is one of context.  The meaning
> of x (its
> semantics, its observed nature in terms of the dynamics of
> the system)
> is *always* dependent on context, and when context is taken
> into
> account, the value of the principle is a reflection of its
> extreme
> consistency (within an extremely general context.)

There's another point to be made here too.  Economic laws -- and laws in general of this sort -- are literally incontrovertible and they don't result merely, as I've pointed out before, because one casually decides to accept this or that context.  They actually apply to the context of human action.  The form they take in particular case, of course, depends on the particulars of that case.

I hope to respond more directly to Bill's rejoinder later.

Regards,

Dan