Economics was a verbal discipline with little math until after 1900

Evidence

The “mathematicization” of the academic study of finance that began in the 1950s paralleled changes in the wider discipline of economics. Economics had developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries predominantly as what the historian of economics Mary Morgan calls a “verbal tradition.” Even as late as 1900, “there was relatively little mathematics, statistics, or modeling contained in any economic work” (Morgan 2003, p. 277). Although the use of mathematics and statistics increased in the first half of the twentieth century, economics remained pluralistic. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 44

Categorization

• DEFINE: Mary Morgan’s ‘verbal tradition’ tag is a useful shorthand for pre-mathematical economics.
• SHARE: A specific person writing on intellectual history or the history of quantification would enjoy that economics remained essentially math-free as late as 1900.
• XREF: connects to: Economics was predominantly a verbal tradition as late as 1900. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 44; Financial economics emerged as a mathematical discipline only from the 1960s — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 33; Early neoliberalism drew on mathematical conventionalism, not naturalism or empiricism — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 52 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Economics was predominantly a verbal tradition as late as 1900. #corroborates (0.97) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 44
• Financial economics emerged as a mathematical discipline only from the 1960s #expands (0.75) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 33
• Economics actively shapes the economy rather than merely describing it #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1987
• Early neoliberalism drew on mathematical conventionalism, not naturalism or empiricism #qualifies (0.70) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 52