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Marshall and the Mathematization of Economics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Andres Vazquez
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Extract

Historians of economic thought have long debated about the methodological position adopted by Alfred Marshall (1842–1924) concerning the mathematization of economics. While Francis Y. Edgeworth and Marshall's pupils, most notably A. C. Pigou and J. M. Keynes, agreed that it was mainly through him that mathematical economics has since become respectable (see Pigou 1925, p. 66) and proclaimed him the founder of modern diagrammatic economics (ibid., p. 24), more recent commentators have criticized his failure to give proper credit to mathematics, and have even depicted him as an enemy of such an approach (see, for example, Schumpeter 1951, p. 97; Coase 1975; Brems 1975; Creedy 1986, p. 126; Schabas 1989; Huriot 1994, p. 17).

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , Fall 1995 , pp. 247 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

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