• Aleksander K. Cherkashin, V.B. Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS (Irkutsk, Russia)

The natural classification of scientific knowledge has always been a challenging task. Its resolution would enable the organization of existing knowledge and facilitate the extraction of new insights for research, practical application, and education. This is particularly important in economics, which is seeing a proliferation of new fields that study national economic development using modern methods of systems analysis and mathematical modeling. This paper proposes a triadic classification scheme based on the principle of fractal similarity, which allows the entire structure to be replicated at every taxonomic level. Within this scheme, only typological units are treated as disjoint layers of knowledge; all other knowledge groups constitute combinations or combinatorial associations of these independent layers. To articulate this structure, we employ stratification procedures from differential geometry, separating information into distinct layers with different contents. The hierarchical classification comprises several levels, progressing from simple to complex and from abstract to concrete: data, concepts, models, intertheories, metatheories, and metascience (exemplified by mathematics). The metatheory level is divided into three sectors – general, quantitative, and formal knowledge – which correspond to political economy, financial analysis, and mathematical (digital) analysis, respectively. These sectors account for the economy's linkages with the external and internal environments of business entities. In a cross-cutting manner, intertheories describe phenomena in both nature and society as specific types of systems using a uniform terminology. On this basis, models of various economic entities – including enterprises in the energy sector – can be constructed. The data and knowledge representation space are defined by eight independent coordinates, one of which is economic growth. This framework underscores the independent meaning of economic knowledge, distinguishing it from that of other sciences.

classification of scientific knowledge, economic theory, fractal hierarchy, metatheories and intertheories, basic concepts, mathematical modeling, digital economy

2026-06-05