The impacts of the early 20th century physics and mathematics crisis on contemporary economics discourse

Vol. 37 No. 4 (2017)

Oct-Dec / 2017
Published February 26, 2020
PDF-English
PDF-English

How to Cite

Martinelli Silva Luperi, Mauricio. 2017. “The Impacts of the Early 20th Century Physics and Mathematics Crisis on Contemporary Economics Discourse”. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 37 (4):735-54. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572017v37n04a05.

The impacts of the early 20th century physics and mathematics crisis on contemporary economics discourse

Mauricio Martinelli Silva Luperi
Professor de Economia da UFABC
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 37 No. 4 (2017), Oct-Dec / 2017, Pages 735-754

Abstract

Through discussion of several authors, dealing with the process of mathematicization of the economy, we seek to clarify the progress of this process in the world. Mirowski (1991) analyzes this phenomenon and finds that it began more strongly from 1925. However, he does not show in his article as mathematics and physics qualitatively influenced the economy. This is our primary goal in this paper: an account, in a systematic way, of how mathematics and physics have influenced constitution of economics, culminating in the adoption of general equilibrium as metatheory and the generalization of the hypothetical-method deductive.

JEL Classification: B1; B4.


Keywords: Mathematicization economics process discourse equilibrou