Taxonomizing the relationship between biology and economics : a very long engagement

Abstract

This paper taxonomizes the possible types of linkage between the two disciplines of economics and biology. The most fundamental division is between, on the one hand, theories of the causal interaction between social and biological phenomena, and, on the other hand, theories addressing the degrees to which the two types of phenomena may be subject to common abstract principles. These two types themselves subdivide into a multiplicity of possibilities. While this detailed taxonomy reveals some options that are undermined by modern science, some others remain scientifically viable but have been relatively neglected.