>From a review of Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century , the >2014 best-seller:
In effect, Piketty tells his fellow professors of economics: Pure mathematics derived from unsupported axioms no longer fools people. Give up the empty certainty, the “immoderate use of mathematical models masking the vacuity of the content. It is not the purpose of social science research to produce mathematical certainties that can substitute for open, democratic debate” (pp. 574, 571). He also shuns computation of regressions and other statistical parameters that best fit reality to a model. Instead, Piketty shows bourgeois economists how they should observe ratios in data, then apply loose reasoning and lots of qualifiers to argue likely conclusions about the future. The problem is that while he criticizes the fetish of mathematical certainty, he also finds no relationships of material necessity. Plausible, often roughly constant, contributing factors and arithmetic scenarios with the rate of return and the rate of growth do not add up to an explanation. –excerpted from http://www.hollowcolossus.com/item_Piketty.htm -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39886): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39886 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116944738/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
