The Pure and the Applied: Bourbakism Comes to Mathematical Economics

Author:

Weintraub E. Roy,Mirowski Philip

Abstract

The ArgumentIn the minds of many, the Bourbakist trend in mathematics was characterized by pursuit of rigor to the detriment of concern for applications or didactic concessions to the nonmathematician, which would seem to render the concept of a Bourbakist incursion into a field of applied mathematices an oxymoron. We argue that such a conjuncture did in fact happen in postwar mathematical economics, and describe the career of Gérard Debreu to illustrate how it happened. Using the work of Leo Corry on the fate of the Bourbakist program in mathematics, we demonstrate that many of the same problems of the search for a formal structure with which to ground mathematical practice also happened in the case of Debreu. We view this case study as an alternative exemplar to conventional discussions concerning the “unreasonable effectiveness” of mathematics in science.

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Subject

History and Philosophy of Science,General Social Sciences

Reference76 articles.

1. Chaos, Bourbaki, and Poincaré;Mandelbrot;Mathematical Intelligencer,1989

2. What Could Mathematical Rigor Mean? Three Reactions to Godel in mid-20th Century Economics

Cited by 43 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Applying Pure Mathematics: IMPA and the Entanglements of Mathematical Economics in Brazil;History of Political Economy;2024-06-01

2. The path of economics research production: Insights into the seesaw between theory and empirics;The American Journal of Economics and Sociology;2024-05-16

3. THE HES AT FIFTY: IDENTITY CRISIS AND THE NEED FOR PLURALISTIC HISTORIOGRAPHICAL APPROACHES;Journal of the History of Economic Thought;2024-02-05

4. Economics at the Cowles Commission in Chicago and Yale;Economic Theory in the Twentieth Century, An Intellectual History—Volume III;2024

5. Uncertainty goes mainstream: Savage, Koopmans and the measurability of uncertainty at the Cowles Commission;The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought;2023-12-23

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3