1st Edition

Philosophy of Mathematics and Economics Image, Context and Perspective

254 Pages
by Routledge

254 Pages
by Routledge

254 Pages
by Routledge

With the failure of economics to predict the recent economic crisis, the image of economics as a rigorous mathematical science has been subjected to increasing interrogation. One explanation for this failure is that the subject took a wrong turn in its historical trajectory, becoming too mathematical. Using the philosophy of mathematics, this unique book re-examines this trajectory.... Read more

Preface, Introduction, Chapter 1 Economics and Mathematics: Image, Context and Development, Chapter 2 Walras’s Programme: The Walras-Poincaré Correspondence Reassessed, Chapter 3 The Formalisation of Economics and Debreu’s Philosophy of Mathematics, Chapter 4 The Axiomatic Method in the Foundations of Mathematics: Implications for Economics, Chapter 5 Hahn and Kaldor on the Neo-Walrasian Formalization of Economics, Chapter 6 Rationality and Conventions in Economics and in Mathematics, Chapter 7 The Emergence of Constructive and Computable Mathematics: New Directions for the Formalization of Economics?, Chapter 8 Economics, Mathematics and Science: Philosophical Reflections, Appendix, Bibliography

Biography

Thomas A. Boylan is Professor Emeritus of Economics of the National University of Ireland, Galway. His main research and teaching interests have been in Economic Growth and Development Theory; Applied Econometrics; Philosophy/Methodology of Economics; Post-Keynesian Economics; and the History of Irish Economic Thought.





Paschal F. O’Gorman is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy of the National University of Ireland, Galway. His main research and teaching areas have been in the Philosophy of Science; Logic; Philosophy of Mind; and since the 1980s, the Philosophy and Methodology of Economics.