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The two paths of the mathematization of the social and economic sciences. (English) Zbl 0792.01010

The “two paths” of the title are: (1) a deterministic route emphasizing some of the same mathematical concepts and techniques that had been applied successfully to classical mechanics, and (2) an approach stressing probabilistic methods. This paper is based on the premise that in the period around 1800, either direction could have been followed, but the former won out. The author investigates the hows and whys of this development. Over half of the paper is devoted to a case study of the French mathematical economist Emmanuel-Etienne Duvillard de Durand (1755- 1832), who was of the probabilist tradition. As might be expected, the course of his career was influenced by both governmental politics and academic politics (Laplace being a key figure in the story).

MSC:

01A50 History of mathematics in the 18th century
90-03 History of operations research and mathematical programming
01A70 Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies
01A55 History of mathematics in the 19th century
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