Nonlinear thermodynamics and social science modeling: fad cycles, cultural development and identificational slips

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The,  Oct, 1995  by Elias L. Khalil

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5. The confusion of dynamics and development is also prevalent among many heterodox theorists who try to advance alternatives to the orthodox neo-Darwinian program (see Khalil, 1993b). To note, the basic cor of the neo-Darwinian program is ahistorical in the sense of failing to account for evolution as an immanent process. The basic core of neo-Darwinism, to use Roth's term, is "linear" or Newtonian: Evolutionary change is presented as the arbitrary movement from one optimum fitness to another. The change of optimum fitness, or the unique and stable equilibrium of gene frequency, arises from the change of exogenous variables, [viz], blind genetic mutation, erratic variation of matter/energy influx (inputs), and capricious fluctuation of the selecting environment (Khalil, 1993a).

6. Most economists who refer to nonlinear dynamics usually confuse it with economic development or evolution (e.g., passim Anderson et al., 1988; Rosser, 1991; passim Day & Chen, 1994; Hodgson, 1994).

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