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FERDINANDO GALIANI’S NEWTONIAN SOCIAL MATHEMATICS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 June 2020
Abstract
The evolution of Ferdinando Galiani’s thought toward social mathematic has been neglected by scholars, and his attempt to establish political arguments on the analytical basis remains unexplored. The non-systematic nature of Galiani’s intuitions, due to his laziness, largely justifies this underestimation of his scientific program. This paper intends to show that the mature abbé Galiani follows an intellectual itinerary autonomous and parallel to that followed by Marquis de Condorcet in the same years. The anti-Physiocratique querelle represents Galiani’s methodological maturation. In contrast with Physiocratic economic doctrine, based on the primacy of deductive methodology, Galiani claims for economic science the realism of circumstance against aprioristic axiomatic hypotheses and rationalist generalizations. Galiani’s project, substantially similar to Marquis de Condorcet’s approach to social science, can be defined as Newtonian social mathematics opposed to Physiocratic Cartesian social mathematics.
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- © The History of Economics Society 2020
Footnotes
Rosario Patalano, University of Naples Federico II; e-mail: [email protected]. I am especially grateful to anonymous referees and to the editor Jimena Hurtado. The usual disclaimers apply.
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