Format:
1 Online-Ressource (xii, 450 pages)
,
digital, PDF file(s)
ISBN:
9780511559990
Series Statement:
Historical perspectives on modern economics
Content:
More Heat Than Light is a history of how physics has drawn some inspiration from economics and also how economics has sought to emulate physics, especially with regard to the theory of value. It traces the development of the energy concept in Western physics and its subsequent effect upon the invention and promulgation of neoclassical economics. Any discussion of the standing of economics as a science must include the historical symbiosis between the two disciplines. Starting with the philosopher Emile Meyerson's discussion of the relationship between notions of invariance and causality in the history of science, the book surveys the history of conservation principles in the Western discussion of motion. Recourse to the metaphors of the economy are frequent in physics, and the concepts of value, motion, and body reinforced each other throughout the development of both disciplines, especially with regard to practices of mathematical formalisation. However, in economics subsequent misuse of conservation principles led to serious blunders in the mathematical formalisation of economic theory. The book attempts to provide the reader with sufficient background in the history of physics in order to appreciate its theses. The discussion is technically detailed and complex, and familiarity with calculus is required
Content:
Fearful spheres of Pascal and Parmenides -- Everything an economist needs to know about physics but was probably afraid to ask : the history of the energy concept -- Body, motion, and value -- Science and substance theories of value in political economy to 1870 -- Neoclassical economic theory : an irresistible field of force meets an immovable object -- Corruption of the field metaphor, and the retrogression to substance theories of value : Neoclassical production theory -- Ironies of Physics envy -- Universal history is the story of different intonations given to a handful of metaphors
Note:
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015)
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780521350426
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780521426893
Additional Edition:
Print version ISBN 9780521350426
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1017/CBO9780511559990
URL:
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