On Mark Perlman and Joseph Schumpeter: Their Respective Approaches to Evolutionary Economics and the History of Economic Theory (2004)

Geoffrey Harcourt

Chapter 8 in The Making of a Post-Keynesian Economist: Cambridge Harvest, 2012, pp 158-163 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract To Joseph Schumpeter’s Ten Great Economists (1952), reissued in 1997 with a typically learned and absorbing introduction by Mark Perlman, whose eightieth birthday is a most appropriate reason for this special issue, I would wish to add Mark and Schumpeter himself. Both had (have) encyclopaedic knowledge of our discipline and of the personalities who made it, both were (are) fascinated by evolutionary processes as they apply to our understanding of the motion over time of economies; both were exemplary teachers, as inspiring as they were demanding of high standards from their pupils and supervisees. Both were conservative in their politics, though Mark is more willing to use our discipline as a backdrop to the making of policy than was Schumpeter who, at least in later life, thought that analysis and scholarship were sufficient ends in themselves. Mark is much more sceptical than Schumpeter was concerning the role of mathematics as the language of our subject. Schumpeter was bedazzled by mathematics and its role, partly because, I suspect, he was not a naturally gifted mathematician, though he worked hard at making himself so. Mark, like Keynes, recognised that mathematics is but one of several languages that have appropriate roles to play in economic theory, analysis and applied work.

Keywords: Economic Literature; Great Economist; General Equilibrium Theory; Respective Approach; Volume Life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-34865-3_9

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780230348653

DOI: 10.1057/9780230348653_9

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().