Subject: Similarities and Differences between system dynamics and dialectical analysis

Posted by George Richardson on 11/24/2010

Message:

On Nov 24, 2010, at 4:33 PM, Philip Abode wrote:


My understanding of system dynamics is rather limited to the application of stock and flow in economics. In economic literature you hear about dialectical analysis as employed by Marx in his critic of capitalist economic models. I wonder if anyone can explain the similarities and differences between these two powerful ideas. Thank you.

It's an interesting issue whether one can capture the sort of structural change that Hegel and Marx were talking about (thesis-antithesis-synthesis) in nonlinear models of the sort that system dynamicists build. It's nonlinearities that generate endogenous structural change in system dynamics models, as they are the mechanisms for changing loop strengths and shifting loop dominance.

Some folks who have thought about this issue deeply think that you have to rewrite equations to capture Marx's structural change. Others think nonlinearities and shifting loop dominance can handle the phenomena very well. (I'm in that camp.)

But that's a pretty sophisticated topic probably better left to the System Dynamics Society Forum pages .

As for "rather limited to the application of stock and flow in economics," I'd suggest looking at Sterman's Business Dynamics. I doubt the phrase "rather limited" would occur to anyone after hefting that. Follow with a glance at the System Dynamics Society online bibliography . Its more than 9,300 references will probably banish forever the idea of "rather limited."

...George

Follow Ups:

Similarities and Differences between system dynamics and dialectical analysis - Karl North 11/24/2010