Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T12:34:26.498Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Formalism in Economics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Louise Ahrndt Golland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The transformation of economics through its mathematization has been of interest to historians of economics and economic thought. While considering aspects of this history, Philip Mirowski (1986a, 1992) and Lionel Punzo (1989, 1991) have introduced David Hilbert's work, the Hilbert program, formalism, and Kurt GddePs results into their discussions in a way that is inconsistent with the mathematical community's understanding of mathematical history.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , Spring 1996 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Benacerraf, Paul and Putnam, Hilary, ed. 1982. Philosophy of Mathematics Selected Readings, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Carnap, Rudolf. 1931. “The Logicist Foundations of Mathematics,” in Benacerraf and Putnam 1982, 41–52.Google Scholar
Dawson, John W. 1986. “Introductory note to 1931a, 1932e, f, and g,” in Feferman et al. 1986, 196–99.Google Scholar
Dawson, John W. 1988. “The Reception of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem,” in Shanker 1988, 74–95.Google Scholar
Dore, Mohammed, Sukhamoy, Chakravarty, and Goodwin, Richard. 1989. John von Neumann and Modern Economics, Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Feferman, Solomon, John W.Dawson, Jr. Dawson, Jr., Stephen C., Kleene, Gregory H., Moore, Robert, Solovay, Jean van, Heijenroot, eds, 1986. Kurt Gödel Collected Works, 1, publication 1929–1936, Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Fregé, G. 1903. Grundgesetze der Arithmetrik, begriffsschriftlich abgeleitet, 2, Hermann Pohle, Jena.Google Scholar
Heyting, Arend. 1931. “The Intuitionist Foundations of Mathematics,” in Benacerraf and Putnam 1982, 52–61.Google Scholar
Ingrao, Bruna, and Giorgio, Israel. 1990. The Invisible Hand, MIT Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Katzner, Donald W. 1986. “The Role of Formalism in Economic Thought, with Illustrations Drawn from the Analysis of Social Interaction in the Firm,” in Mirowski 1986, 137–78.Google Scholar
Kleene, Stephen C. 1952. Introduction to Metamathematics, North-Holland, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Kleene, Stephen C. 1986. “Introductory note to 1930b, 1931 and 1932b,” in Feferman et al. 1986, 126–41.Google Scholar
Kline, Morris. 1980. Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty, Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Lákatos, Imre. 1976. Proofs and Refutations, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menger, Karl. 1994. Reminiscences of the Vienna Circle and the Mathematical Colloquium, edited by Louise, Golland, Brian, McGuinness and Abe, Sklar, Kluwer, Dordrecht.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mirowski, Philip, ed. 1986. The Reconstruction of Economic Theory, Kluwer, Boston.Google Scholar
Mirowski, Philip. 1986a. “Mathematical Formalism and Economic Explanation,” in Mirowski 1986, 179–240.Google Scholar
Mirowski, Philip. 1992. “What Were von Neumann and Morgenstern Trying to Accomplish?,” in Weintraub 1992, 113–47.Google Scholar
Von Neumann, John and Morgenstern, Oskar. 1964. The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, 3d edition, Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Peckhaus, Volker. 1994. “Hilbert's Axiomatic Programme and Philosophy,” in The History of Modern Mathematics, edited by Rowe, David E. and McCleary, John, Academic Press, Boston.Google Scholar
Punzo, Lionello F. 1989. “Von Neumann and Karl Menger's Mathematical Colloquium,” in Dore 1989, 29–65.Google Scholar
Punzo, Lionello F. 1991. “The School of Mathematical Formalism and the Viennese Circle of Mathematical Economists,” Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 13, Spring 1991, 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, Constance. 1972. David Hilbert, Springer Verlag, Berlin.Google Scholar
Russell, B. 1903. The Principles of Mathematics, 2d ed., Allen & Unwin, London, 1937.Google Scholar
Shanker, S. G. ed. 1988. Gödel's Theorem in Focus, Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Wang, Hao. 1963. A Survey of Mathematical Logic, North-Holland, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Weintraub, E. Roy. 1985. General Equilibrium Analysis. Studies in Appraisal, Cambridge University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Weintraub, E. Roy. 1992. Toward a History of Game Theory, Duke University Press, University of Chicago, Durham and London.Google Scholar