IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/cambje/v26y2002i1p63-80.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nominalising the numeric: an alternative to mathematical reduction in economics

Author

Listed:
  • Ken Dennis

Abstract

Mathematical reduction in economics is the attempt to reduce reasoning about human economic behaviour to the logic of numbers and numerical relations. The method of numerics shows how, in simple cases, the mathematical and non-mathematical components of economic theory can be both formally distinguished and integrated. However, in its compressed idiomatic form, this method treats numerics (the numerical terms in measuremental expressions) as determinatives (numerical adjectives) rather than as substantives. This paper shows how the numeric can be nominalised or given the grammatical status of a substantive. The method of numerics is then used to explore the fundamental flaws of mathematical reduction in economists' efforts to achieve logical rigour in the formalisation of economic theory. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Ken Dennis, 2002. "Nominalising the numeric: an alternative to mathematical reduction in economics," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 26(1), pages 63-80, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:26:y:2002:i:1:p:63-80
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:26:y:2002:i:1:p:63-80. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/cje .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.