Is Economic Planning Hypercomputational? The Argument from Cantor Diagonalisation

摘要

Murphy [26] argues that the diagonal argument of the number theorist Cantor can be used to elucidate issues that arose in the socialist calculation debate of the 1930s. In particular he contends that the diagonal argument buttresses the claims of the Austrian economists regarding the impossibility of rational planning. We challenge Murphy's argument, both at the number theoretic level and from the standpoint of economic realism.