Summary: The article explain why Economics called “dismal science”. It was first told by Thomas Carlyle in December 1849. “In particular, Carlyle was criticising the economists belief in supply and demand which stood in sharp contrast to his idealised view of a slave society.”People in the Victorian age thought black people were inferior to white people. Carlyle is the one. But many economists believed in equality and freedom of the people. Economics support for black emancipation and the ending of slavery system. Therefore in Carlyles’s mind, economics is ”Quite abject and distressing...dismal science... led by sacred cause of Black Emancipation”.
Connection: At the beginning of Economics 12, Mr. Bach(my lovely business teacher) asks us to do some research about this topic “Why do we called Economics the ‘Dismal Science’”. I think he wants us to know the history of economics. Once we figure out the history of something, we can learn the knowledge quicker and deeper, also easier to understand them. One of the main point of economics is “free trade”. This coincides to the Black Emancipation. The Blacks hoped the word “freedom” for many years. “Free” is a bridge and bring economics and Black Emancipation together.
Reflection: I really hate the word ”dismal”. It is pretty negative. But economics is a good thing. It is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. But economics is totally different from pure science such as chemistry， biology. While most of the environmental conditions can be controlled during the experiment in pure science, economic experiments are conducted under conditions that cannot be easily controlled. Same as the weather, economy changes in every moment. People never know what will happen next. For example, many people lost money in the recession that happened to us last year.
Article:http://www.economicshelp.org/2008/07/why-is-economics-called-dismal-science.html
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1 comment:
hi wayne
Thanks for teaching me the meaning and the history of "dismal science". The whole article is pretty neat, but some of the quotes in summary part don't make sence to me, maybe it's my poor understanding. After reading your article, the idea of "dismal science" come clear. So,basicly "dismal science" is another name for economics. Dismal science is to discribe the non-predictable reaction from people to certain situation of economy changes. Thank you for sharing.
Xinni Qiu
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