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In a message dated 97-11-12 12:30:05 EST, Tony writes: 
 
<< I don't know about others, but when I am insulted and hectored about my  
faults, I switch off.  >> 
 
Kuhn's original contrast between science and non-science was 
inspired by looking at the difference between natural science and  
social science.  Natural scientists find if much less easy to 
'switch off' in the face of anomalous results.  In the social sciences, 
this seems to be the everyday practice.  Hence, you get 'crisis' and 
revolution in natural science, and entrenched degenerate research programs 
in social science. 
 
Tony continues: 
 
>>The smugness and conscious sense of superiority of 1960s 
Cambridge had to be experienced to be believed.<< 
 
Substitute '1990's mathematical economics' for 'Cambridge' and you 
have an equally true sentence.  There is little reason to think that the 
smugness and conscious sense of superiority in the later case is more 
warranted than in the later. 
 
Tony also writes: 
 
>>The subtext was:  lesser places (like Chicago, MIT, LSE ..) should  
fall into line, since Cambridge was the centre of the world.<< 
 
One could substitute 'lesser schools (like Austrian, Institutional, 
Marxist, Post Keynesian ..)' for 'lesser places [etc.]' and 'mathematical 
economics' for 'Cambridge' and the sentence again would remain 
equally applicable to the contemporary situation.  Futhermore, it should 
also be noted, that the attacks of mathematical economics upon its 
explanatory rivals is also "often marked by a stunning ignorance of the 
literature under discussion" [to borrow Tony's words].  An example might 
be the writings of the mathematical economist Kenneth Arrow on the  
work of Friedrich Hayek, to cite only one example.  Mathematical economists 
have in fact institutionalized this ignorance, and taken it as a point of 
pride. 
 
Insular, arrogant, self-satified, with much less justification than could 
possibly warrant this -- equally true of Cambridge in the 60's and  
the economics taught at MIT, Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, etc. today. 
 
 
Greg Ransom 
Dept. of Philosophy 
UC-Riverside 
[log in to unmask] 
http://members.aol.com/gregransom/ransom.htm 
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