Visualization or Mathematization? The London School of Economics and “Diagrammatic Economics” in the 1930s

Abstract

Abstract Although the subject of numerous contributions in the history of economics, the use of theoretical diagrams by economists is still quite misunderstood, as this practice is often characterized as a basic form of mathematization, soon replaced by more rigorous techniques of demonstration or exhibition. The present article attempts to challenge this view, focusing on a period of time, the 1930s, during which “diagrammatic economics” and other techniques coexisted, and on a specific community, that of students and young researchers from the London School of Economics with a keen interest in using diagrams as tools for economic reasoning. The cosmopolitan nature of research and education at the LSE, with its insistence on reading a vast amount of literature and attending seminars by a revolving cast of local and foreign lecturers, offered a favorable environment for a form of visual analysis that helped clarify concepts and resolve definitional issues, at a time when interest in various economic traditions had not yet given way to attempts to systematize and unify economic knowledge and its standards of production.