A world ruled by number : William Stanley Jevons and the rise of mathematical economics. --

Princeton, NJ, Estados Unidos : Princeton University Press, c1990.

xii, 192 p. ; 24 cm.

Princeton Legacy Library

9780691605944

Basado en la tesis doctoral del autor. Universidad de Toronto, 1983.

Incluye referencias (Pp. 177-186).

Preface. --1. Mathematical pursuits. -- 2. Jevon's life. -- 3. The mathematical theory of economics. -- 4. Logic and scientific method. -- 5. Markets and mechanics. -- 6. Response to the theory. -- 7. Mathematical economics takes hold. -- 8. Mathematical hegemony. -- Notes. -- Select bibliography. -- Index. --

Tomado de Amazon: "If any single characteristic differentiates current, neoclassical economics from the classical economics of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, it is the use of mathematics. Pointing to the critical role of William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882), Margaret Schabas demonstrates that the advent of mathematical economics in late Victorian England resulted more from new currents in logic and the philosophy of science than from problems specific to the classical theory of value and distribution. Jevons's Principles of Science (1874) was the first book to take issue with John Stuart Mill's faith in inductive reasoning, to assimilate George Boole's mathematical logic, and to discern many of the limitations that beset scientific inquiry. Together with a renewed appreciation for Bentham's utility calculus, these philosophical insights served to convince Jevons and his followers that the economic world is fundamentally quantitative and thus amenable to mathematical analysis." --