The effortless economy of science? / Philip Mirowski.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mirowski, Philip, 1951-

Series:

Science and cultural theory.

Science and cultural theory

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Research--Economic aspects.

Research.

Science and state.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (473 p.)

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Mirowski contends that neoclassical economics have persistently presumed and advanced a misleading model of a self-sufficient social structure that transcends market operations in pursuit of absolute truth. He moves beyond grand abstractions in order to talk about the way science is lived and practised today.

Contents:

Part 1 From Economics to Science Studies 1

Introduction: Cracks, Hidden Passageways, and False Bottoms: The Economics of Science and Social Studies of Economics 3

1 Confessions of an Aging Enfant Terrible 37

Part 2 Science as an Economic Phenomenon 51

2 On Playing the Economics Card in the Philosophy of Science: Why It Didn't Work for Michael Polanyi 53

3 Economics, Science, and Knowledge: Polanyi versus Hayek 72

4 What's Kuhn Got to Do with It? 85

5 The Economic Consequences of Philip Kitcher 97

6 Re-engineering Scientific Credit in the Era of the Globalized Information Economy 116

Part 3 Rigorous Quantitative Measurement as a Social Phenomenon 145

7 Looking for Those Natural Numbers: Dimensionless Constants and the Idea of Natural Measurement 147

8 A Visible Hand in the Marketplace of Ideas: Precision Measurement as Arbitrage 169

Part 4 Is Econometrics an Empirical Endeavor? 193

9 Brewing, Betting, and Rationality in London, 1822-1844: What Econometrics Can and Cannot Tell Us about Historical Actors 195

10 Why Econometricians Don't Replicate (Although They Do Reproduce) 213

11 From Mandelbrot to Chaos in Economic Theory 229

12 Mandelbrot's Economics after a Quarter-Century 251

Part 5 Episodes from the History of the "Laws of Supply and Demand" 271

13 The Collected Economic Works of William Thomas Thornton: An Introduction and Justification 273

14 Smooth Operator: How Marshall's Demand and Supply Curves Made Neoclassicism Safe for Public Consumption but Unfit for Science 335

15 Problems in the Paternity of Econometrics: Henry Ludwell Moore 357

16 Refusing the Gift 376.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (pages [427]-457) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780822333227

0822333228

9780822385646

0822385643

OCLC:

607453051