Manifestations of chaos in an economic theory of the organization

The social sciences have failed to develop a body of theory comparable to that attained in the physical sciences. One possible reason is that the Scientific Method is an improper paradigm for investigating the social sciences.; This dissertation argues that the social sciences are undergoing a broad "paradigm shift" battle between competing methodologies, triggered by the failure of the Scientific Method to develop social science knowledge. This failure is a broad psychological event with sociological ramifications.; Toward advancing this hypothesis, three central points are addressed: (1) Human behavior based on simple principles can result in complex or chaotic behavior. Such behavior may be more ubiquitous than supposed. To support these contentions, a simple computer simulation of a human organization is demonstrated to be chaotic. In addition, a simple equation representing growth in organizations, analogous to May's Logistic equation, is derived and shown to be chaotic. These could be representative of many other fundamentally chaotic human processes. (2) The Scientific Method is shown to be inappropriate for investigating chaotic systems. (3) If a paradigm shift in methodologies in the social sciences is underway, characteristic symptoms, taken from historical examples, should be present. In addition, another set of possible symptoms can be developed by examining human cognitive processes. The current state of the social sciences is surveyed, looking for these characteristic symptoms. All of the anticipated behaviors are discovered.; The failure of the Scientific Method to develop social science knowledge has resulted in a disruption of human cognitive processes allowing implantation of erroneous mental models into many social science communities. Many of the conflicts within the social sciences today, manifested in aspects of Postmodernism, Critical Theory, Cultural Marxism, the denial of self-evident truths, the unrestrained use of metaphor as a substitute for reasoned theory development, and other pathologies, can be traced in part to the disruption of mental models and cognitive processes.