Quality and Quantity, 17 ( 1983) 15 1- 156 151 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands Note Time and Cognition in Economics: Towards a Time-Based Cognitive Continuum for Economic Inquiry WARREN L. YOUNG Center for Technological Education, Holon, Israel Introduction In a series of recent papers, I have dealt with the relationship between time and concept formation, and time, measurement and indeterminacy in economics (Young, 1982a,b). The present paper broadens the epistemologi- cal scope of this previous work to include the problem of time and cognition, and the question as to whether there exists-or can exist-a cognitive continuum in econo,mics. In the first section of the paper, the nature of cognitive continua-in both mathematical and conceptual forms-is dealt with and their implications for economic cognition are discussed. In the second section, a time-based cognitive continuum for economics is pre- sented. The final section of the paper deals with analogies between the proposed time-based cognitive continuum developed for economics and a parallel system in the case of physics. In this context I suggest a possible way to overcome what, in my view, would seem to be the main problem of cognition in economics up to now: that is, the emphasis on singular, rather than complementary, cognitive systems. The Nature of Cognitive Continua-Mathematical and Conceptual At the most general level of analysis, there would seem to be two variant types of cognitive continua: (a) the mathematical type, which encompasses the elements of arithmetic and n-dimensional, i.e., logically and mathemati- cally possible, continua; and (b) the conceptual type, encompassing the elements of intuitive and physical, i.e., space-time, continua. The cardinal difference between the types emanates from their being either time-based on nontime-based, respectively. The mathematical type is characterized by its nontemporal basis, while the conceptual type is characterized by a temporal 0033-5 177/83/0000-0000/$03.00 0 1983 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company