Mathematics in social sciences: the case of economics / A matemática nas ciências sociais: o caso da economia

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

The use of mathematical techniques is increasing in most disciplines of social sciences, especially in Economics, and the mathematizations supporters usually try to legitimize this process from the supposedly axiological neutrality of Mathematics, arguing, under positivist influence, that the mathematical language should be the very language of science. This study opposes itself to this conception, rejecting the possibility of mathematical neutrality and demonstrating that Mathematics can help only in a very limited way to the comprehension of historical processes. We sustain that mathematical models are unable to describe the origin, development or decline of social relations, being useful, if so, only as description of quantitative patterns of events when social relations stay stable. It follows that social theories mathematically formulated have the objective of developing a collection of models, one for each circumstance. Social changes, even the smallest, are outside the focus of the theories so developed. Finally, we argue that the increased use of mathematics is directly associated with the positivist rejection of ontology, so the explanation for the mathematization, at least in outline, is the same for the dissemination of positivist ideas.

ASSUNTO(S)

instrumentalism economia - metodologia relativism and pragmatism matemática pragmatismo ontologia metodologia científica epistemologia realismo mathematics

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