Research On The Multifaceted Evolvement Of Western Economics Since The1970S

Since World War â…¡, the neoclassical paradigm has become the mainstream of western economics and sustained its dominant status up till now. However, the neoclassical paradigm has its defects. Although Neoclassical Economics itself has been going through constant modifications and perfection, its essential defects have never been remedied. Since the1970s, pushed jointly by both the inner and outer forces of Neoclassical Economics, western economics has gradually begun its paradigm shift, which is quite evident today. The thesis aims at systematically combing out the historic process of the shift and summarizing its characteristics on the purpose of a more accurate grasp of the direction of the development of western economics.The thesis explores the characteristics of the shift from three aspects:first, from the perspective of paradigm shift, western economics is shifting toward Complexity Science. Second, with the increasing influence of heterodox economics, western economics has shown an obvious tendency of pluralism. Third, western economics is more and more drawing on the approaches and results of other disciplines, displaying the tendency of transdisciplinarity. These characteristics connect closely and direct to the paradigm shift of economics.The body of the thesis centers on the illustration of the three characteristics.In order to illustrate the fact that western economics is shifting toward Complexity Science, the thesis first gives a brief introduction to Complexity Science, its basic features, and then focuses on explaining the changes that economics is going through. The thesis reviews the complexity elements in traditional economic thoughts, states the fact that changes going on within Neoclassical Economics have already shown signs of shift toward Complexity Science, and then briefly introduces a couple of major new branch disciplines of economics to prove that the elements of Complexity Science or the concepts of Complexity System have been clearly embodied in these disciplines. Then based on the above-mentioned discussion, the thesis makes a judgment on the nature of the changes going on in western economics: The paradigm shift is taking place, but the revolution of economics is yet to complete, nevertheless it is possible to foresee that economics is on the eve of scientific revolution. Last but not least, the thesis predicts the possible tendency of change for western economics in the future.Pluralism of western economics is mainly embodied in two aspects:pluralism of theories and pluralism of economics education, which can be seen as the enrichment of the entire economics and economics education by the progress of heterodox economics. The thesis combs out in detail the process, performance, and characteristics of pluralism from three aspects:pluralism of western economic theories and approaches, pluralism movement of western economics, and the future of pluralism and western economics.In summarizing the tendency of transdisciplinary research of western economics, the thesis first elaborates on the basic questions of transdisciplinary research, reviews the development process of transdisciplinary research of western economics, and then demonstrates that transdisciplinary research has become more and more remarkable in today's western economics with two examples concerning the relationship between western economics and psychology, and researches on cooperative behavior by western economics.Last, by answering "Why does western economics change?" and "What changes have taken place in western economics", a summary for the entire thesis and the direction of further research is given.