DeLong Smackdown Watch: vtcodger on Chemists
Hoisted from Comments:
vtcodger said...: Re: "Chemists begin with what the Heisenberg and Pauli principles, plus the three-dimensionality of space, tell us about stable electron configurations."
No, I'm pretty sure they don't. Moreover, they developed the Periodic Table of Elements around 1870 -- roughly 30 years before Pauli and Heisenberg were even born. Understanding of why the Periodic Table works took another 80-100 years. They did not even mention Pauli and Heisenberg in 1961 when I got my BS in Chemistry at UCLA.
That's important, because it is one of many demonstrations that you can do useful science and successful prediction without understanding exactly why things work. Darwin and Wallace didn't know about genetics but still managed to work out evolution. They didn't do a half bad job. Gregor Mendel did know quite a lot about genetics by the time he died in 1884, but he did not know anything about DNA. (Neither would the knowledge have helped him much if it were somehow revealed to him).
If anything this supports your argument. You don't have to know how economics works to know that fiscal austerity during downturns and fiscal profligacy during booms are both bad ideas.
