Steve Fuller wrote: 
  
> For those of us who are 'generalists' and perhaps not regular readers of 
> JEL, can Bruce (or someone else in the know) name the offending authors of 
> the pieces on economics of science and economics & psychology?  
>  
> Yours in discourse 
>  
> Steve Fuller 
 
The author of "The Economics of Science"  is Paula E. Stephen of  
Georgia State University; the author of "Economics and Psychology:  
Lessons For Our Own Day From the Early Twentieth Century" is Shira B.  
Lewin of Harvard (a graduate student there, perhaps?).  
 
My post was an immediate reaction to the articles.  On further  
reflection, I think I was unfair to criticize the first author for  
not having cited the other "Economics of Science" literature, since  
it is a lit that is just now emerging (as written by economists,  
anyway).  I feel less guilty about criticizing the second article.  It  
is a solid piece; the author meticulously goes back to original  
sources.  What is galling is that the secondary literature is  
ignored.  And this, I submit, is evidence of what happens when  
history of economic thought is read out of the curricula of virtually  
every graduate program in the U.S.   
 
The situation, then, is worse than Roy W. even imagines.  Not only  
are historians of thought too often doing "thin" histories, but the  
whole writing of history of thought is starting to be done by people  
who feel they must start anew, from scratch.  Lewin, in my opinion,  
did a good job. But it could have been better.  Far more troubling,  
of course, are the "histories" written by theorists like Stiglitz,  
accounts whose sole function is stage-setting for his own theoretical  
innovations. 
 
On the bright side, at least the JEL is making an effort (nearly if  
not unique among journals) to include historical pieces among its  
surveys.  
 
Bruce C.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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