Every field of study has its own language and its own way of thinking.
Mathematicians talk aboutaxioms, integrals, and vector spaces. Psychologists talk about ego, id, and cognitive dissonance. Lawyers talk about venue, torts, and promissory estoppel.
每个研究领域都有它自己的语言和思考方式。数学家谈论定理、积分以及向量空间。心理学家谈论自我、本能、以及认知的不一致性。律师谈论犯罪地点、侵权行为以及约定的禁止翻供。
Economics is no different. Supply, demand, elasticity, comparative advantage, consumer surplus, deadweight loss—these terms are part of the economist’s language. In the coming chapters, you will encounter many new terms and some familiar words that economists use in specialized ways. At first, this new language may
seem needlessly arcane. But, as you will see, its value lies in its ability to provide you a new and useful way of thinking about the world in which you live.
经济学家也一样。供给、需求、弹性、比较优势、消费剩余、最低损耗，这些术语是经济学语言的一部分。在接下来的章节里，你会遇到很多新术语以及一些熟悉的词汇，这些术语和词汇被经济学家们用在经济这一领域。起初，这些新的语言可能看起来不必要的神秘，但是，你会看到，他的价值在于他能提供给你一种新的和有用的思考方式，让你思考你生活的世界。
Economists try to address their subject with a scientist’s objectivity. They approach the study of the economy in much the same way as a physicist approaches the study of matter and a biologist approaches the study of life: They devise theories, collect data, and then analyze these data in an attempt to verify or refute their theories.
经济学家们试图从科学的角度来阐释他们的学科。他们演绎经济学和物理学家演绎物质、生物学家演绎生命一样：他们设计理论，收集数据，然后分析这些数据，试图能够证明或者反驳他们的理论。
To beginners, it can seem odd to claim that economics is a science. After all, economists do not work with test tubes or telescopes. The essence of
science, however, is the scientific method—the dispassionate development and testing of theories about how the world works. This method of inquiry is as applicable to studying a nation’s economy as it is to studying the earth’s gravity or a species’ evolution. As Albert Einstein once put it, “The whole of science is nothing more than the refinement of everyday thinking.”
对于初学者来说，宣称经济学是科学似乎看起来很奇怪。毕竟，经济学家们并不和试管或者显微镜一起工作。然而，科学的精华是科学的方法——世界如何运作这一理论的逐渐发展和试验。这种观察的方法运用于研究一个国家的经济，就像它运用于研究地球的重力或者一个物种的演变。就像爱因斯坦曾经提出的：科学的全部无非就是日常思考的精炼。
Although Einstein’s comment is as true for social sciences such as economics as it is for natural sciences such as physics, most people are not accustomed to looking at society through the eyes of a scientist. Let’s therefore discuss some of the ways in which economists apply the logic of science to examine how an economy works. 尽管爱因斯坦的观点对于社会科学例如经济学是正确的，就像它对于自然科学例如物理学一样是正确的，大部分人并不习惯于通过科学的角度来看待社会。因此，就让我们来讨论一些方法，通过这些方法，经济学家们运用科学逻辑来观察经济如何运作。
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD: OBSERVATION, THEORY, AND MORE OBSERVATION
科学的方法：观察、理论以及更多的观察
Isaac Newton, the famous seventeenth-century scientist and
mathematician, allegedly became intrigued one day when he saw an apple fall from an apple tree. This observation motivated Newton to develop a theory of gravity that applies not only to an apple falling to the earth but to any two objects in the universe.
Subsequent testing of Newton’s theory has shown that it works well in many circumstances (although, as Einstein would later emphasize, not in all circumstances). Because Newton’s theory has been so successful at explaining observation, it is still taught today in undergraduate physics courses around the world.
牛顿，17世纪著名的科学家和数学家，当有一天看到一个苹果从树上掉下时，引起了他的深思。这个观察使牛顿形成了重力的理论，这一理论不仅应用于苹果落地，而且应用于宇宙中的任何两个物体之间。牛顿定律的不断试验表明，它适用于很多情况（尽管爱因斯坦后来强调并不是适用于所有的情况）。由于牛顿定律在解释试验时很成功，所以今天它仍然在世界各个大学的物理课程中被学习。 This interplay between theory and observation also occurs in the field of economics. An economist might live in a country experiencing rapid increases in prices and be moved by this observation to develop a theory of inflation. The theory might assert that high inflation arises when the government prints too much money. (As you may recall, this was one of the Ten Principles of Economics in Chapter 1.) To test this theory, the economist could collect and analyze data on prices and money from many different countries. If growth in the quantity of money were not at all related to the rate at which prices are rising, the economist would start to doubt the validity of his theory of inflation. If money growth and inflation were strongly correlated in international data, as in fact they are, the economist would become more confident in his theory.
现象和理论的这一关系也同样发生在经济领域。经济学家可能生活在这样的国家，这个国家的物价正在迅速增长，在这一现象的推动下，经济学家发现了关于通货膨胀的理论。这一理论可能宣称：当政府印制太多货币时，高的通货膨胀就会出现（你可能会想起，这是第一章中十条经济学原理之一）。为了验证这一理论，经济学家会从不同国家收集并分析关于价格和货币量的数据。如果货币量的增长和价格膨胀率根本不相关，经济学家就会开始怀疑通货膨胀理论的正确性。如果数据表明货币增长量和通胀高度相关，经济学家就会对他的理论更加有信心。