How Economics Became a Mathematical Science

Science and Cultural Theory

by E. Roy Weintraub

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.

Genres: Economics, History, Mathematics, Nonfiction

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Economist and mathematician.

Reviews

[Shibajee Samaddar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though this asks a good knowledge & philosophical understanding of Mathematics, it's one of the best books of History of Economics - A must read.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

It had some interesting background on mathematics and how it is used in economics but tended to drag a bit. Not bad if you are interested in the history of the economics profession but I would say that is of interest to a very narrow subset of researchers.

[Wendelle]

great book attempting a rare subject, that nevertheless traces the history of mathematics more than the history of economics. Through discussions of the lives and contributions of foundational mathematicians like Hilbert, Godel, von Neumann and Bourbaki, the book shows how philosophical attitudes toward rigorousness in proof, axiomatisation, and pure over applied mathematics impacted the economics discipline. written by a mathematician who later specialised in economics.