Response to a review of voting theory for democracy, in the light of the economic crisis and the role of mathematicians

Thomas Colignatus ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Economic theory needs a stronger defence against unwise application of mathematics. Mathematicians are trained for abstract thought and not for empirical science. Their contribution can wreak havoc, for example in education with real life pupils and students, in finance by neglecting real world risks that contribute to a world crisis, or in voting theory where they don’t understand democracy. In 1951 the mathematician Kenneth Arrow formulated his Impossibility Theorem in social welfare theory and since then mathematicians have been damaging democracy. My book Voting Theory for Democracy (VTFD) tries to save democracy and social welfare from such destruction. VTFD applies deontic logic to Arrow’s Theorem and shows that Arrow’s interpretation cannot hold. The editor of a journal in voting matters has VTFD reviewed by a mathematician instead of a researcher who is sensitive to economics, democracy and empirical issues. Guess what happens. The review neglects economics, democracy and empirical issues. Curiously it also neglects the argument in deontic logic, perhaps given the distinction between mathematics and logic. Given the importance of democracy it is advisable that economists study the situation and rethink how economics and mathematics interact in practice.

Keywords: economic crisis; voting theory; democracy; economics and mathematics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A10 D71 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-11-09, Revised 2011-11-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe and nep-pol
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/34615/1/MPRA_paper_34615.pdf original version (application/pdf)

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:pra:mprapa:34615

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().