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Critical Realism & Mathematics versus Mythematics in Economics

Summary:
The Critical Realist movement, developed by Tony Lawson at Cambridge University, argues against the use of mathematics in economics. I argue that their critique is directed at the abuse of mathematics by Neoclassical economists, rather than the proper use of mathematics per se. In this brief talk–where for some reason my webcam was as static ...

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The Critical Realist movement, developed by Tony Lawson at Cambridge University, argues against the use of mathematics in economics. I argue that their critique is directed at the abuse of mathematics by Neoclassical economists, rather than the proper use of mathematics per se. In this brief talk–where for some reason my webcam was as static as a Neoclassical model–I explain that my 1995 complex systems model of Minsky (http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/papers/Keen1995FinanceEconomicBreakdown_JPKE_OCRed.pdf) led to a prediction from the properties of the model that could never have been made verbally–and which turned out to be accurate. It is also derived from a set of identities, so while it can be incomplete, it cannot be a mis-specification, as is the case with so many Neoclassical models.


Steve Keen
Steve Keen (born 28 March 1953) is an Australian-born, British-based economist and author. He considers himself a post-Keynesian, criticising neoclassical economics as inconsistent, unscientific and empirically unsupported. The major influences on Keen's thinking about economics include John Maynard Keynes, Karl Marx, Hyman Minsky, Piero Sraffa, Augusto Graziani, Joseph Alois Schumpeter, Thorstein Veblen, and François Quesnay.

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