How Economics Became a Mathematical Science

by E. Roy Weintraub, Barbara Herrnstein Smith (Editor)

Overview

In How Economics Became a Mathematical Science E. Roy Weintraub traces the history of economics through the prism of the history of mathematics in the twentieth century. As mathematics has evolved, so has the image of mathematics, explains Weintraub, such as ideas about the standards for accepting proof, the meaning of rigor, and the nature of the mathematical enterprise itself. He also shows how economics itself has been shaped by economists’ changing images of mathematics.
Whereas others have viewed economics as autonomous, Weintraub presents a different picture, one in which changes in mathematics—both within the body of knowledge that constitutes mathematics and in how it is thought of as a discipline and as a type of knowledge—have been intertwined with the evolution of economic thought. Weintraub begins his account with Cambridge University, the intellectual birthplace of modern economics, and examines specifically Alfred Marshall and the Mathematical Tripos examinations—tests in mathematics that were required of all who wished to study economics at Cambridge. He proceeds to interrogate the idea of a rigorous mathematical economics through the connections between particular mathematical economists and mathematicians in each of the decades of the first half of the twentieth century, and thus describes how the mathematical issues of formalism and axiomatization have shaped economics. Finally, How Economics Became a Mathematical Science reconstructs the career of the economist Sidney Weintraub, whose relationship to mathematics is viewed through his relationships with his mathematician brother, Hal, and his mathematician-economist son, the book’s author.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822383802
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	05/28/2002
Series:	Science and Cultural Theory
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	838 KB

About the Author

E. Roy Weintraub is Professor of Economics at Duke University. He is the editor of Toward a History of Game Theory, also published by Duke University Press, and the author of numerous books, including Stabilizing Dynamics: Constructing Economic Knowledge.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments


Prologue


1. Burn the Mathematics (Tripos)

2. The Marginalization of Griffith C. Evans

3. Whose Hilbert?

4. Bourbaki and Debreu

5. Negotiating at the Boundary (with Ted Gayer)

6. Equilibrium Proofmaking (with Ted Gayer)

7. Sidney and Hal

8. From Bleeding Hearts to Desiccated Robots

9. Body, Image, Person

Notes

Bibliography

Index

What People are Saying About This

Roger Backhouse

The mathematization of economics is probably the most important development in the history of twentieth-century economics. This book provides fascinating accounts of important episodes in this process and should interest anyone who wants to understand how and why it took place.
— Roger Backhouse, University of Birmingham

Mary S. Morgan

Roy Weintraub retells the history of twentieth-century economics through a series of engagements-duels of intellect and imagination-between individual members of two scientific communities: the mathematicians and the economists. A totally original, idiosyncratic, and highly personal account which illuminates brilliantly not just how economics became mathematized, but how mathematics cut free from the objects of science.
— Mary S. Morgan, London School of Economics and University of Amsterdam

Editorial Reviews

It is an important contribution to the history of economics, it is interesting in all respects, and I recommend it to economists and historians of science. . . . [L]et us salute Professor Weintraub for his excellent and stimulating book. One can only be heartened at Duke's continuing preeminence in and emphasis on the history of economics.—Robert D. Tollison,

EH.Net

Weintraub's book bring to the fore an interesting and well-documented story full of insight on the complex interplay among pure scientific ideas, images of these ideas, and no less than that, institutional and historical factors. . . . Weintraub's book makes it clear that there is also much to learn from a similar, detailed study of the history of economics. But more in general this book will make interesting reading to readers with a broader scope of interest in history of science at large. . . . I do believe that Weintraub's book embodies the kind of research that can positively help practitioners of the discipline realize the kind of insight to be expected by studying the history of their field when presented in a stimulating, well-researched and authoritative way as is the case here.—Leo Corry

Journal of Economics

[E]xcellent. . . . Weintraub's discussion is, as always, illuminating. . . . I have enjoyed reading this book and learned much from it. . . . [T]his book is a considerable success.—Salim Rashid

Mathematical Reviews

[S]hould interest a broad, interdisciplinary readership. . . . [S]ucceed[s] in ably demonstrating the virtues of combining different strategies for the analysis and writing of the history of economics itself. . . . Weintraub carefully (and honestly) avoids taking sides in this morality play. His objective is altogether different, new, and significant. . . . Weintraub concludes his extraordinary book with an altogether unusual blending of professional and personal history. . . . It is delightful, at times funny, always warm and touching, and in the end deeply poignant vignette.—Michael A. Bernstein

Journal of Business History

I was not prepared to enjoy this book. I knew Weintraub to be a lively writer, but his topic was daunting. I was half expecting a forthrightly pedantic and in the end ploddingly dull monograph that followed the usual formulaic listing of 'seminal contributions' on the road to full mathematization. . . . To my great good fortune, Roy Weintraub's How Economics Became a Mathematical Science is neither pedantic or dull. It is, in fact, an altogether extraordinary book. . . . This, then, is an enjoyable book to read. But it is also an important one. I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that How Economics Became a Mathematical Science itself promises to change the way that people view the relationship between mathematics and economics. . . . How Economics Became a Mathematical Science is a gem, the work of a mature historian of thought at the peak of his powers. It is also a book that virtually any economist will enjoy. Whether you call it a late holiday present or anticipated beach reading, treat yourself to this book.—Bruce Caldwell,

Southern Economic Journal

This book . . . demonstrates brilliantly the potential advantages of a wider perspective that draws from multiple disciplinary traditions.—Ted Porter

Journal of the History of Economic Thought

[I]nteresting. . . . [F]ascinating. . . . I have nothing critical to say about the book. It is an important contribution to the history of economics, it is interesting in all respects, and I do recommend it to economists and historians of science. . . . [L]et us salute Professor Weintraub for his excellent and stimulating book. One can only be heartened at Duke's continuing preeminence in and emphasis on the history of economics.—Robert D. Tollison

H-Net Reviews

Roy Weintraub retells the history of twentieth-century economics through a series of engagements—duels of intellect and imagination—between individual members of two scientific communities: the mathematicians and the economists. A totally original, idiosyncratic, and highly personal account which illuminates brilliantly not just how economics became mathematized, but how mathematics cut free from the objects of science.”—Mary S. Morgan, London School of Economics and University of Amsterdam


“The mathematization of economics is probably the most important development in the history of twentieth-century economics. This book provides fascinating accounts of important episodes in this process and should interest anyone who wants to understand how and why it took place.”—Roger Backhouse, University of Birmingham

From the Publisher