Why Economics Must Distinguish Between Systems and Sets

Since the neoclassical tradition, mainstream economics has generally treated the economic system as a set composed of homogeneous individuals, and has built theoretical tools such as aggregation analysis, representative individual, and general equilibrium on this basis. This set paradigm obscures the structurality and heterogeneity of economic systems. This paper reveals typical manifestations of treating systems as sets in economics and traces their philosophical root – the homogeneity of utility value. On this basis, it briefly points out that reconstructing economics should shift to a general system theory paradigm from set paradigm, taking heterogeneous use-value as a foundation.