Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-13T09:31:38.067Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Jevons on measurement. Replay: The mathematisation of economics in the Jevonsonian theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

Bert Revoy
Get access

Extract

The article entitled, “Jevons on measurement: A comment” (Mosselmans [1998]), betrays a lack of comprehension of the Jevonsonian process of productive abstraction of numbers. This misapprehension is clearly apparent when B. Mosselmans wrongly confuses units for numbers. This especially furthers the circumvention of the Jevonsonian idea according to which the world is ruled by numbers.

Utility is not a measurable magnitude, yet it is impossible to feature it in the theory of exchange? Jevons responds by the negative. In his view, it does exist a general theory concerning the mathematical expression of magnitude that is not measurable. This assertion is found in the Theory of Political Economy and in The Principle of Science.

Type
Controverses
Information
Recherches Économiques de Louvain/ Louvain Economic Review , Volume 64 , Issue 3 , 1998 , pp. 353 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 1998 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blaug, M. [1985], La pensée économique, origine et développement, Paris, Economica.Google Scholar
Frege, G. [1969], Les fondements de l'arithmétique, Paris, Le Seuil.Google Scholar
Jevons, S. [1871], Theory of Political Economy, London, Macmillan.Google Scholar
Jevons, S. [1883], Principles of Science, London, Macmillan.Google Scholar
Mosselmans, B. [1998], Jevons on measurement: A comment, Recherches Economiques de Louvain, 64(3) (this issue).Google Scholar
Revoy, P. [1997], La mesure selon Jevons et Walras: une divergence de méthode, Recherches Economiques de Louvain, 63(3), pp. 293–313.Google Scholar
Walras, L. [1987], Mélange d'économie politique et sociale, Paris, Economica.Google Scholar