E-Book Overview
This is the first cross-over book in the history of science written by an historian of economics, combining a number of disciplinary and stylistic orientations. In it Philip Mirowshki shows how what is conventionally thought to be "history of technology" can be integrated with the history of economic ideas. His analysis combines Cold War history with the history of the postwar economics profession in America and later elsewhere, revealing that the Pax Americana had much to do with the content of such abstruse and formal doctrines such as linear programming and game theory. He links the literature on "cyborg science" found in science studies to economics, an element missing in the literature to date. Mirowski further calls into question the idea that economics has been immune to postmodern currents found in the larger culture, arguing that neoclassical economics has surreptitiously participated in the desconstruction of the integral "Self." Finally, he argues for a different style of economics, an alliance of computational and institutional themes, and challenges the widespread impression that there is nothing else besides American neoclassical economic theory left standing after the demise of Marxism. Philip Mirowski is Carl Koch Professor of Economics and the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Notre Dame. He teaches in both the economics and science studies communities and has written frequently for academic journals. He is also the author of More Heat than Light (Cambridge, 1992) and editor of Natural Images in Economics (Cambridge, 1994) and Science Bought and Sold (University of Chicago, 2001).
E-Book Content
Machine Dreams Economics Becomes a Cyborg Science This is the first crossover book into the history of science written by a historian of economics, pioneering the combination of a number of disciplinary and stylistic orientations. It shows how what is conventionally thought to be "history of technology" can be integrated with the history of economic ideas, focusing on the history of the computer. The analysis combines Cold War history with the history of the postwar economics profession in America, revealing that the Pax Americana had much to do with the content of such abstruse and formal doctrines as linear programming and game theory. It links the literature on "cyborg science" found in science studies to economics, an element missing in the literature to date. The treatment further calls into question the idea that economics has been immune to postmodern currents found in the larger culture, arguing that neoclassical economics has surreptitiously participated in the deconstruction of the integral "Self." Finally, it argues for a different style of economics, namely, an alliance of computational and institutional themes, and challenges the widespread impression that there is nothing besides American neoclassical economic theory left standing after the demise of Marxism. Philip Mirowski is Carl Koch Professor of Economics and the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. He teaches in both the economics and science studies programs at the university. The author of More Heat than Light (Cambridge University Press, 1989) and editor of Natural Images in Economics (Cambridge University Press, 1994) and Science Bought and Sold, Professor Mirowski has also written more than 100 articles in academic journals. He has held visiting positions at the University of Massachusetts, Yale, the Sorbonne, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and the University of Modena. Cambridge Books Online © Cambridge University Press, 2010 Machine Dreams Economics Becomes a Cyborg Science PHILIP MIROWSKI University of Notre Dame CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge Books Online © Cambridge University Press, 2010 To those of the younger generation