Economics from Shared Reality and Distinct Persons

Abstract

In Recognition Science, physical and ethical descriptions concern one underlying reality. Actions change shared relations; their burdens and consequences remain attributable to distinct persons. Economics develops how those persons organize production, storage, exchange and use within that reality. A complete two-person economy identifies the information this requires: each person's usable resources, recorded claims and outstanding agreements. Within the model, we prove that this description is necessary and sufficient for the stated future-action tests. The general condition is exact: every action a description reports must be possible from the actual situation it describes. With personal requirements and information retained, this preserves shared futures, ethical judgments and informed control. A person's incident comparison cost and its change are read from the same ledger that the action transforms. Relevant past effects require additional memory. Comparison-cost settlement has a unique minimizer at fixed net positions; specified accounting rules make it reachable. Physical measurements and the identification of experienced persons determine where these mathematical results apply.