Monday , March 18 2024
Home / Real-World Economics Review / The reinjection of empirical ideas

The reinjection of empirical ideas

Summary:
“As a mathematical discipline travels far from its empirical source, or still more, if it is a second and third generation only indirectly inspired from ideas coming from ‘reality’, it is beset with very grave dangers. It becomes more and more purely aestheticizing, more and more purely l’art pour l’art. This need not be bad, if the field is surrounded by correlated subjects, which still have closer empirical connections, or if the discipline is under the influence of men with an exceptionally well-developed taste. But there is a grave danger that the subject will develop along the line of least resistance, that the stream, so far from its source, will separate into a multitude of insignificant branches, and that the discipline will become a disorganized mass of details and

Topics:
Editor considers the following as important:

This could be interesting, too:

Dean Baker writes In a free market, drugs are cheap, government-granted patent monopolies make them expensive

Lars Pålsson Syll writes I heard there’s some good shit on TV tonight …

Dean Baker writes Is “greedflation” over?

John Quiggin writes From micro to macro, Andrew Leigh’s accessible history covers the economic essentials: My review from The Conversation

The reinjection of empirical ideas“As a mathematical discipline travels far from its empirical source, or still more, if it is a second and third generation only indirectly inspired from ideas coming from ‘reality’, it is beset with very grave dangers. It becomes more and more purely aestheticizing, more and more purely l’art pour l’art. This need not be bad, if the field is surrounded by correlated subjects, which still have closer empirical connections, or if the discipline is under the influence of men with an exceptionally well-developed taste.

But there is a grave danger that the subject will develop along the line of least resistance, that the stream, so far from its source, will separate into a multitude of insignificant branches, and that the discipline will become a disorganized mass of details and complexities.

In other words, at a great distance from its empirical source, or after much ‘abstract’ inbreeding, a mathematical subject is in danger of degeneration. . . .

In any event, whenever this stage is reached, the only remedy seems to me to be the rejuvenating return to the source: the reinjection of more or less directly empirical ideas. I am convinced that this is a necessary condition to conserve the freshness and the vitality of the subject, and that this will remain so in the future.”

John von Neumann (from The Mathematician)   https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Extras/Von_Neumann_Part_2/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *