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The case of the arbitrary rigour of economics has interesting implications in academia at large. An uncharitable person would say that the spurious mathematical rigour of economics is simply gate-keeping for a professional guild. The extremely technical skills required to master mainstream economics limit the supply of would-be economists, generating a manageable number of rent-seekers that can be paid handsomely. But this probably extends to much of academia as well. Academia is peppered with examples where “rigour” and “method” are elevated with no obvious epistemic justification. One has to wonder if appeals to rigour are more often than not guild building in order to justify large pay-checks by limiting the supply of the participants. The trope of “how many angels can dance on the tip of a pin” is a famous example of this spurious rigour. Medieval theologians were accused of developing beautiful, often rigorous and coherent systems, that deal with questions of no intellectual consequence. Similarly, the same phenomenon probably emerges in some sector of academia, given that rigour and opacity are a cheap way of signalling expertise to institutions in order to justify large salaries.
full: https://colddarkstars.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/against-economics-against-rigour/
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