Gibbs, jointly with William Graham Sumner, supervised Fisher's
PhD dissertation "Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of
Value and Prices" (accepted 1891 as a thesis in mathematics and
political economy, published 1892).

Bob Dimand

Quoting Thomas Humphrey <[log in to unmask]>:

> Many thanks to Bruce and Roy for clearing things up for me. Yes I
> forgot to type J. Willard Gibbs' s name. And yes, I agree with Roy
> that the thread goes from Gibbs through Wilson to Samuelson. But
> didn't Gibbs have some influence on Fisher, especially on Fisher's
> choice of mathematical economics for his PhD dissertation? After all,
> both Gibbs and Fisher were long-time members of the same institution,
> namely Yale University. Fisher must have been inspired by Gibbs's work.
> --Tom Humphrey
> On Nov 16, 2014, at 3:05 PM, Bruce Larson wrote:
>
>> J. Willard Gibbs.  I think you forgot to include his name, Tom,    
>> unless it appeared elsewhere in the discussion.  It is on the title  
>>   page of Foundations.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Bruce Larson
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 16, 2014 at 1:01 PM, Thomas Humphrey   
>> <[log in to unmask] > wrote:
>> It was not Paul Samuelson but rather Yale Physics Professor and    
>> teacher of Irving Fisher who first coined the phrase "mathematics   
>> is  a language."
>> ---Tom Humphrey
>>
>>
>> On Nov 16, 2014, at 4:12 AM, Nicola Giocoli wrote:
>>
>> Should we then start calling it "the Samuelsonian disease" (from    
>> Paul Samuelson's famous "mathematics is language" dictum)?
>>
>> I know the use of models is not the same thing as the use of math    
>> (just read von Neumann's "The mathematician"), but a good    
>> catchphrase may help. Other suggestions?
>>
>> Nicola Giocoli
>> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device from WIND
>>