Introduction to symposium on 'reflexivity and economics: George Soros's theory of reflexivity and the methodology of economic science'

Nature does not care ... whether we penetrate her secrets and establish successful theories about her workings and apply these theories successfully in predictions. In the social sciences, the matter is more complicated and in the following fact lies one of the fundamental differences between these two types of theories: the kind of economic theory that is known to the participant in the economy has an effect on the economy ... There is thus a "backcoupling" or "feedback" between the theory and the object of the theory, an interrelation which is definitely lacking in the natural sciences ... In this area are great methodological problems worthy of careful analysis." (Oskar Morgenstern, 1972, p. 707).