----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- In the context of ongoing discussion I would like to quote Alfred Marshall, who in a letter to his friend has written: "I had a growing feeling in the later years of my work that a good mathematical theorem dealing with economic hypotheses was very unlikely to be good economics, and I went more and more on the rules - (1) Use mathematics as a shorthand language, rather than as an engine of inquiry. (2) Keep these till you have done. (3) Translate into English. (4) Then illustrate by examples that are important in real life. (5) Burn the mathematics. (6) If you can't succeed in (4), burn (3). This last I did often." When I present this quote to my Polish students I add also a comment that the 3rd advice ought to be understand by them not only as 'transate it as a verbal description' but also literally 'write it in English', otherwise almost nobody will know results of your work. The HES discussion is made under the title 'Math and English in Economics' I think that looking at the course of development of economic analysis in the last few decades we ought to discuss that matter under the general title 'Math, Simulation and English in Economics'. There are growing branches of economic analysis using computer simulation approach as the main engine of research (to mention only two: ACE 'Agent-Based Computational Economics' and Schumpeterian Modelling). Best wishes, Witold Kwasnicki Wroclaw University ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]