2012
DOI: 10.1017/s1053837212000156
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The Mathematical Turn in Economics: Walras, the French Mathematicians, and the Road Not Taken

Abstract: One of the pivotal moments in the move toward mathematizing economics occurred at the turn of the twentieth century, with Leon Walras as perhaps its most ardent champion. Yet, there is no small irony here, in that the leading French mathematicians to whom Walras turned to buttress and defend the case for a mathematical economics, especially Henri Poincare and Emile Picard, laid out reservations to the scope of this mathematizing program. They even pointed to matters, including the hold of the past on future ev… Show more

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Cited by 12 publications
(4 citation statements)
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“…With Keynesianism, state policies shifted from setting and sustaining the rules of the capitalist game to states being one of the big players in the game. This also means that economic ideas adopted a new role as massive empirical research was required to facilitate macroeconomic demand-management (Boumans, Dupont-Kieffer, 2011;Turk, 2012). As long as the Keynesian boom lasted, economists' involvement in managing economic affairs earned them a lot of respect that contributed to the ideology of an age of social engineering.…”
Section: Liberalism Socialist Challenges and Capitalist Responsesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…With Keynesianism, state policies shifted from setting and sustaining the rules of the capitalist game to states being one of the big players in the game. This also means that economic ideas adopted a new role as massive empirical research was required to facilitate macroeconomic demand-management (Boumans, Dupont-Kieffer, 2011;Turk, 2012). As long as the Keynesian boom lasted, economists' involvement in managing economic affairs earned them a lot of respect that contributed to the ideology of an age of social engineering.…”
Section: Liberalism Socialist Challenges and Capitalist Responsesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, the tendency to imitate the methods of physics became much more apparent with the emergence of the marginalist school. Jevons' assertion that the theory of economy presents a close analogy to the science of statical mechanics (Jevons, 1871, p.viii), and Walras' prediction that mathematical economics will rank with the mathematical sciences of astronomy and mechanics (Walras, 1874, pp.47, 48), are indicative examples in this respect (see also Mirowski, 1984Mirowski, , 1989Mirowski, , 1991Turk, 2012). The views of second generation marginalist F. Y. Edgeworth represent the highest point of physics and, in particular of the methodological influence of classical physics.…”
Section: Historical Rootsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This provides a remarkable counterpoint to the more general, if not universal, tendency of economists to align their work with that of the supposed paradigm offered up by classical physics (Turk 2006). It held even when, as was the case for Walras, correspondence with Poincaré and other French mathematicians reveals serious cautions on their part about the path he was pursuing, among other considerations the assumption of unerring clairvoyance and rationality (Turk 2012). For Neurath such assumptions constituted a misguided form of Cartesianism or Laplacian ‘absolutism’ that he also categorized as ‘pseudo-rationalism.’…”
Section: On the Trail Of Poincaré And Duhemmentioning
confidence: 99%