How does chemistry link to economics

I am sure that everything in the world has some certain bonds between each other. So does chemistry and economics.

Superficially, chemistry is related to economics in terms of commercial profits. We cannot live without chemical products such as shower gel, shampoo, perfume,  detergent and so on. There are tons of companies in the world that sell chemical products. Of course, these companies’ only purpose is to make profits. In this way, during the researching and testing stages, entrepreneurs need to consider the cost of these experiments and the cost of the product, as well as a reasonable price of this particular chemical good so that consumers will find the product price-worthy.

Philosophically, or specifically – epistemically, chemistry is linked to economics because “both of them are able to become alchemy.” There is a pun in this answer where “alchemy” has two meanings. In chemistry area, “alchemy” can be explained as a form of chemistry studied in the Middle Ages, that was concerned with trying to discover ways to change ordinary metals into gold. However, in terms of economics, “alchemy” means a seemingly magical process of transformation. For example, Alibaba used to be a tiny small company that nobody wanted to invest into; but now, it has become the largest e-commerce company in China. The word “alchemy” reveals that people believe these two subjects are able to bring people fortunes.

However, if we dig deeper, other philosophical relationships between chemistry and economics include how Chemists study the behaviour of particles while economists study the behaviour of humans. But if we think even more deeply, what is the difference between particles and humans? It is a true fact that humans are made up of particles. In this way, we can deduce that chemistry and economics are intrinsically the same in nature – content-wise, of course, the two disciplines differ vastly. However, both require the correlation between micro variables and macro variables, for instance, the relation between individual atoms and chemical reactions, and the relation between an individual consumer with the economy at macro level.

 

 

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2 thoughts on “How does chemistry link to economics

  • September 15, 2017 at 4:44 am
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    You stated in your post that both Economics and Chemistry have micro and macro parts. Could there be any more aspects to these fields rather than these two classifications?

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  • September 15, 2017 at 10:33 am
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    I really like the philosophical similarity you brought out between Economics and Chemistry in your last point. Perhaps, you could expand on this point a little more, as it would make quite an interesting argument. It was also interesting to read your first paragraph, as you gave the reader an insight into how both subjects are related in the real world.

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