The Hoyt Group

Discipline Development and Applications of Science

The Discipline Development and Applications of Science section of the Wiki site is organized around a philosophical foundation to science in an effort to foster further discipline development, especially in the real estate economics arena and related disciplines.

The last fifty years has produced new disciplines as well as branches of existing disciplines, yet the trauma to the health of our society seems as great as ever, and there is rising concen about the robustness of the economy. Avoidance of debacles such as the Great Recession is gaining attention of the social scientists, in part by integrating advances made through the nascent disciplines and in part by taking interdisciplinary approaches to the interdisciplinary problems.

Discussions may take many routes. The initial organization takes six routes.

1: Knowledge Creation as an Evolutionary Phenomenon

In this topic we note that the case of Western Civilization and complex real estate systems is one way to look at discipline development, especially when a discipline may be on the cusp of a paradigm shift. Western Civilization is considered because it is in great need of a paradigm shift. Complex real estate systems is considered because it has the potential of a paradigm shift that could play a role in the development of the nascent discipline of complexity economics, especially its translational aspects to improve the quality of decisions so as to avert debacles such as the recent Great Recession that evolved after the housing bubble and capital market freeze in the wake of poor public policy and undesirable private sector decisions.

2: A Gift for Our Leading Social Scientists

This topic is the closest to beng comprehensive in that it splits into three parts; (1) the philosophical foundation of reason, (2) the application of reason in the context of science, and (3) the development of a research agenda starting with a proposed pilot program. The thrust of the entry is to foster the assembly of potential participants in one or more to-be-formed research roundtables.

3: Strategy and Epistemology

This topic is intended for the same purpose but takes a shorter route and a sharper focus on forecasting outcomes in the context of strategic decision-making in the uncertainty of a complex adaptive economic system. The assertion is “The traditional view of social science research to enhance knowledge relevant to public policy is deficient!” It defends the assertion on the basis of epistemology, what we know and how we know it.

4: The Great Recession

This topic defends the position by discussing the vision problems of the experts in the context of the Subprime Crisis and its aftermath of the Great Recession that followed the freeze of the capital markets.

5: Complexity Economics

This topic discusses the nascent brand of economics that is most relevant to improving the contributions of the social scientists to averting economic debacles which pursuing societal goals. It fits closer with the experience of real estate economists than the esoteric philosophical issues, but it is a gateway to a bio-economic approach that adds principles used in the biological sciences to economics as well as the principles that have been applied from physics.

6: Complexity Theory and Consilience

This topic discusses a diversity of applications. Our understanding of complex real estate systems may certainly be enhanced by considering the applications of complexity theory to disciplines well beyond complexity economics. This section provides links to discussions of complexity theory applications in other disciplines in diverse fields of study and provides a discussion of the alleged incommensurability of complexity theory and consilience. [The intent is to be able to draw on principles common to other disciplines, but to recognize that the reductionism is not applicable to emergent phenomenon, but the analytics used for emergence may be based on transferable models that provide better insights as to potential outcomes. These insights may assist in developing better strategies for harnessing complexity. That brings us back to the opening subsection of Knowledge Creation as an Evolutionary Phenomenon. It also brings us to the first block in the sections on complex real estate systems focused on the Homer Hoyt Research Initiative for Developing Data and Analytics to Monitor and to Identify Emerging Imbalances in the Housing Finance Market.

Please review the concepts discussed in these pages and provide your feedback and thoughts.