===================== HES POSTING ================== 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 ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]