The World in the Model

During the last two centuries, the way economic science is done has changed radically: it has become a social science based on mathematical models in place of words. This book describes and analyses that change - both historically and philosophically - using a series of case studies to illuminate the nature and the implications of these changes. It is not a technical book; it i...

During the last two centuries, the way economic science is done has changed radically: it has become a social science based on mathematical models in place of words. This book describes and analyses that change - both historically and philosophically - using a series of case studies to illuminate the nature and the implications of these changes. It is not a technical book; it is written for the intelligent person who wants to understand how economics works from the inside out. This book will be of interest to economists and science studies scholars (historians, sociologists and philosophers of science). But it also aims at a wider readership in the public intellectual sphere, building on the current interest in all things economic and on the recent failure of the so-called economic model, which has shaped our beliefs and the world we live in.

Mary S. Morgan，英国社会科学院院士，荷兰皇家艺术和科学院海外院士，伦敦经济学院和阿姆斯特丹大学历史学和经济哲学教授。她出版了一系列历史和经济哲学方面书籍：从统计到实验再到事实，从十九世纪社会进化论到冷战时期的博弈理论。她早期的著作有《计量经济学思想史》（剑桥大学出版社，1990）和《模型中介》（剑桥大学出版社，1999，与玛格丽特.莫里森合著）。她还汇编了许多关于应用模型进行度量与决策以及概率论思想发展的选集。摩根教授作为英国社会科学院(British Academy)教授，以及普林斯顿大学戴维斯中心研究员，目前正开展“跨社会科学案例研究的再思考”项目的研究工作。