Paul,
I don't know. I don't remember anything of the sort
appearing in his Nobel Prize address, "The Mathematization
of Economics." If there is anybody who represents what I
would consider to be the "wrong" sort of math in economics
it is Debreu. He is clearly a representative of the application
of formal axiomatic Bourbakism of the sort that is very thick
in France and which has probably triggered the reaction by
the post-autistics there. He certainly at times appear to
represent the use of math as an end in itself, especially
ultra-formal math.
At the same time I must note that he used that math to
accept a fundamental undermining of the model, namely
the Mantel-Sonnenschein-Debreu theorem, that opens a lot
of doors to a lot of problems. That one is still being sorted
out. So, I will give him the credit of following where his logic
leads wherever.
BTW, E. Roy Weintraub has been writing and publishing
(mostly in odd places and book collections) analyses of
Debreu as a Bourbakist and documents his close links with
the leaders of that school in France.
Barkley Rosser
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wednesday, February 07, 2001 11:58 AM
Subject: [PEN-L:7851] Re: Re: RE: Re: RE: Critique of mathematical economics
On 7 Feb 01, at 8:44, Jim Devine wrote:
>
> I believe Debreu doesn't care enough about reality to deal with such
issues.
>
> Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
>
Jim,
Didn't I hear somewhere that Debreu when he accepted his Nobel
(sic) he said that he developed GE theory just to prove it was
impossible in reality? Does anyone else remember hearing or
seeing this?
Paul
Paul Phillips,
Economics,
University of Manitoba
