Thoughts to You from Yours Truly - ( TYYT ) - ( 83 ) - Theory and Reality

 Thoughts to You from Yours Truly - ( TYYT ) - ( 83 ) - Theory and Reality

Theory and Reality

 All theories are necessarily approximation of the reality they purport to describe and predict. Otherwise, they will be too specific to have any predictive power. We may as well take each real life scenario to transform it into individual theories which are accurate to every minor detail. But then, there would be numerous theories to cover every real life scenario thus rendering the them useless for lack of generality and predictive value. Theories are by nature theoretical ( here comes another one of my tautologies ! ). Let me tell you a short story about theories and theorists. When I attended my first lecture in economics on my first day at the Hong Kong University back in 1968, our lecturer at the time was an economist who was previously employed by the United Nations as a consulting economist. Before starting the lecture on economics, he said he would tell us an interesting story after which we will definitely realise what economics is all about. It goes like this. There was once a centipede ( a small crawling venomous creature with 100 small little legs ) which has lost one of its legs. It has heard that the owl is the wisest creature around in the forest world. So, the centipede paid the wise old owl a visit to ask for help to heal its leg. After a lot of close examination and serious pondering by the wise old owl, the wise guy was only able to come up with a puzzled grin in his eyes and some undulating wrinkles on his forehead. The owl told the centipede that with all his great knowledge about nature he regretted that there was nothing he could do to reverse the course of the centipede's misfortune. However, the owl knew of a even wiser creature called the economist who could play magic by using only limited means to meet unlimited ends with the material world. Perhaps, the economist was smart enough to conjure up something for the centipede. So, it immediately went to see the smart economist. Without much hesitation, the economist said to the centipede :- “ I cannot help you to recover your leg but I may be able to reduce your level of injury and disability by 90%. “ The centipede was overjoyed to hear the good news. “ Please, tell me how this can be done. I will surely repay your kindness when I have the chance “ said the centipede. “ O.K. ! It's easy “ said the economist , “ you can reduce your disability by 90% if you turn yourself into a millipede which has 1000 legs. “ The centipede was dumbfounded. “ How could I do this ? “ it protested. “ Don't ask me ,“ said the economist,:- “ I am only a theorist. I base my theory on sound logic but as regards implementation you have to ask the technicians. Implementation is not the responsibility of my department.” There you have it. Theories mostly work on principles and approximations. The story itself is an extreme case of pure theorisation and real life economists do come up with practical solutions for economic problems. For example, J.M. Keynes' important economic theories on government fiscal expenditure and deficit financing reversed the course of the world depression in the 1930s resulting from the great Wall Street Crash of 1929. However, the story does hight light the necessarily general nature of all theories. I hope that given time and further efforts my theory will become more systematic and user friendly.