A «Geometrical Heresy»: Giuseppe Palomba's Economics between Physics and History

Enrico Petracca

Il Pensiero Economico Italiano, 2016, vol. 24, issue 2, 105-124

Abstract: The economic thought of the Neapolitan Paretian economist Giuseppe Palomba (1908-1986) has usually been neglected due to its high level of originality. Palomba, in fact, devised an axiomatic theory of economic dynamics as qualitative change that was informed by a sophisticated abstract geometrical framework. In particular, Palomba used for the first time ever in economics the mathematics of groups of transformation, which allowed the identification of invariant properties (i.e., the marginalist principle and equilibrium) among different models of economic phenomena. Other aspects of Palomba’s composite framework are also emphasized, such as the attempt to find a consistent analogy between economics and physics, the attempt to provide a historicist interpretation of mathematical models, and the explicit metaphysical inspiration behind Palomba’s thought. In this last regard, our attempt is to show that even metaphysical intuitions can be valuable heuristics for a scientificbased economic analysis

Keywords: History of economic dynamics; Italian Paretian School; econophysics; historicism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B29 B31 B49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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