Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Can an interdisciplinary field contribute to one of the parent disciplines from which it emerged?

  • Regular Article
  • Published:
The European Physical Journal Special Topics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the light of contemporary discussions of inter and trans disciplinarity, this paper approaches econophysics and sociophysics to seek a response to the question – whether these interdisciplinary fields could contribute to physics and economics. Drawing upon the literature on history and philosophy of science, the paper argues that the two way traffic between physics and economics has a long history and this is likely to continue in the future.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. I. Wallerstein et al. (eds.), Open the Social Sciences: report of the Gulbenkian Commission on the Restructuring of the Social Sciences (Stanford University Press, 1995)

  2. J. Thompson Klein, A conceptual vocabulary of interdisciplinary science, in Practicing Interdisciplinarity, edited by P. Weingart and N. Stehr (University of Toronto Press, 1999), pp. 3–24

  3. P. Weingart, in Interdisciplinarity: The Paradoxical Discourse, edited by P. Weingart and N. Stehr, op. cit. pp. 25–47

  4. J. Thompson Klein, op. cit. pp. 3–5

  5. W. Bechtel, quoted in J. Thompson Klein, op. cit. pp. 46–47 (1986)

  6. W. Bechtel, quoted in J. Thompson Klein, op. cit. p. 7 (1986)

  7. H. Nowotny, The Potential of Transdisciplinarity, www.helga-nowotny.eu/downloads/helga_nowotny_b59.pdf

  8. H. Nowotny, op. cit

  9. M. Strathern, Interdisciplinarity: Some models from the human sciences, Interdiscip. Sci. Rev. 32, 123 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. B. Shneiderman, The New ABCs of Research: Achieving Breakthrough Collaboration (Oxford University Press, 2016)

  11. Y. Elkana, Unmasking Certainties and Embracing Contradictions: Graduate Education in the Sciences, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 2004, www.eua.be/.../MAASTRICHT_Plenary1_Yehuda_Elkana.1099472273

  12. M. Strathern, op.cit. (2007)

  13. J. Thompson Klein, op. cit., p. 8 (1999)

  14. L. Gabora, D. Aerts, Evolution as Context-driven Actualisation of Potential toward an interdisciplinary theory of change of stat, Interdiscip. Sci. Rev. 30, 69 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. M. Ridley, The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge (Fourth Estate: London, 2015), p. 1

  16. M. Ridley, The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge (Fourth Estate: London, 2015), p. 5

  17. L. Gabora, D. Aerts, op. cit. p. 69 (2005)

  18. P. Mirowski, More Heat than Light: Economics as Social Physics, Physics as Natures Economics (Cambridge University Press, 1989)

  19. P. Mirowski, op. cit., p. 3 (1989)

  20. A. Chakraborti, I. Muni Toke, M. Patriarca, F. Abergel, Econophysics review: II. Agent-based models, Quant. Finance 11, 1013 (2011)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  21. A. Chatterjee, B.K. Chakrabarti, Kinetic exchange models for income and wealth distributions, Eur. Phys. J. B 60, 135 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. M. Lallouache, A.S. Chakrabarti, A. Chakraborti, B.K. Chakrabarti, Opinion formation in kinetic exchange models: Spontaneous symmetry-breaking transition, Phys. Rev. E 82, 056112 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. M. Patriarca, E. Heinsalu, A. Chakraborti, Basic kinetic wealth exchange models: Common features and open problems, Eur. J. Phys. B 73, 145 (2010)

    Article  ADS  MATH  Google Scholar 

  24. A. Chakraborti, M. Patriarca, Variational principle for the Pareto power law, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 228701 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. K. Sharma, A. Chakraborti, Physicists approach to studying socio-economic inequalities, in Physics in New Dimensions, edited by S.K. Dhiman, P. Sharma, P. Sharma (forthcoming, 2016)

  26. A.S. Chakrabarti, B.K. Chakrabarti, Microeconomics of the ideal gas like market models, Physica A 388, 4151 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. P. Ball, The physical modelling of society: A historical perspective, Physica A 314, 1 (2002)

    Article  ADS  MATH  Google Scholar 

  28. L. Boltzmann, Weitere Studien uber das Warmegleichegewicht unter Gasmolekulen, Akad. Wiss. Wein 66, 275 (1872)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  29. E. Majorana, Il valore delle leggi statistiche nella fisica e nelle scienze sociali, Scientia, Quarta serie, 36, 58 (1942) [English translation in E. Majorana, The value of statistical laws in physics and social sciences, Quant. Finance 5, 133 (2005)]

    Google Scholar 

  30. V. Pareto, Cours d’Économie Politique (Université de Lausanne, 1897)

  31. E. Smith, D.K. Foley, Classical thermodynamics and economic general equilibrium theory, J. Econ. Dyn. Cont. 32, 7 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/invisiblehand.asp

  33. P. Mirowski, op. cit. p. 5 (1989)

  34. P. Mirowski, op. cit. p. 7–8 (1989)

  35. L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, first published 1953, (Blackwell Publishing, 2001)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi-110067, India

    Anirban Chakraborti & Kiran Sharma

  2. Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi-110067, India

    Dhruv Raina

Authors
  1. Anirban Chakraborti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dhruv Raina
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kiran Sharma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Anirban Chakraborti, Dhruv Raina or Kiran Sharma.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chakraborti, A., Raina, D. & Sharma, K. Can an interdisciplinary field contribute to one of the parent disciplines from which it emerged?. Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 225, 3127–3135 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60115-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60115-x

Search

Navigation