Methodology of Economic Science and Problems of Objectivity in Economics

The article described the specifics of economic science in the context of general scientific principles of cognition and the need to ensure the stability of economic systems. The research examined the nature and essence of objective and subjective factors of economic behavior, the nature of their interaction and the mechanism of transformation. Objective economic laws of differentiation of economic entities by the level of absolute welfare and equality of relative welfare are formulated. The state of the economic system is considered from the position of thermodynamic equilibrium. We formulated the condition of thermodynamic equilibrium of economic systems, which differs from the condition of equilibrium in the light of mechanistic concepts. The moment of the first archaic division of labor was highlighted as the point of bifurcation and the exit of the economic system from the state of thermodynamic equilibrium. The irreversible nature of this transition was emphasized. We found that it is necessary to study economic systems as non-equilibrium from the standpoint of assessing the state of complex dynamic structural formations.