Though time is a concept mostly associated with physics and philosophy, the concept of time needs to
be understood in the discipline of economics. This paper attempts to highlight the importance of time
in knowledge economics, the discipline of economics that looks into the primary
commodity knowledge. The paper attempts to take into account the non-linear time concepts that have been very
important, since Einstein published his papers back in 1905. Without understanding time in a
comprehensive manner, it is not possible to have a firm grip on the process of the economic progression of all
societies. A theory must hold true in all societies, the characteristics of time must be the same in all societies,
just as an atom must behave in the same manner in similar laboratory conditions in all societies. This
paper will illustrate that without understanding the variable time, it is not possible to fully
comprehend knowledge economics.
A meaningful treatise of time, related to
economics and other sciences in the `social
science' arena, would make the understanding of these disciplines more meaningful.
Philosophy, an art, has the advantage of embracing disciplines that change our outlook on
life. Social sciences on the other hand, though clearly claiming to be
sciences, are far behind philosophy in adapting
new understandings into their syllabi. Without a clear understanding of the variable
time,
it would be very difficult to understand knowledge
economics. It would be safe to say that it would be very difficult to understand the progression of society in an economic sense and
the reasons why so many societies keep falling
behind, whilst others seem to race ahead.
From the definition of time we clearly understand time as a continuous forward
moving process. We cannot go back in time, and change things we hate because time moves from
the past, to the present, to the future. As investigators in a phenomenon, we must always
start with a definition. Having a definition, we shall now strive to see why it is so important
to understand time, especially for knowledge economics and literally for any social science
that endeavors to explain the progression of mankind. |
