Description
Book SynopsisThis essential book collects together, for the first time, the writings of Deirdre McCloskey on economic history and the rhetoric of economics. The essays have been presented to show McCloskey's evolution over time: from economist to critic, positivist to postmodernist, conventional economist to feminist economist, man to woman.
Measurement and Meaning in Economics allows the reader to experience an astonishing personal and intellectual journey with one of today's most fascinating economists.
McCloskey argues that economics has become ahistorical and narrowly scientific, which is a harmful development for a moral science. In all of the papers presented in this volume she writes with historical consciousness and critical understanding, in an attempt to repair the dysfunctional relationship between economics and the humanities.
This book should be read not only by students and scholars of economic history and philosophy, but by all those concerned with the state of economics and its place in the social sciences.
Trade Review'. . . for those who have not read McCloskey . . . I would strenuously urge their attention. They will find a very bright, imaginative mind at work, writing in an engaging, vigorous style. She provides a good test of our understanding of neoclassical theory and, for those of a different persuasion, an even better test of our ability to critically evaluate that theory. Moreover, she's certainly not above taking her fellow neoclassical theoreticians to task for various shortcomings . . . I would recommend reading these essays . . . she is always imaginative, provocative, perceptive. And perhaps most important, she's entertaining - though with a serious purpose. And that cannot be said of very many of our tribe.' -- John F. Henry, History of Economics Review
Table of ContentsContents: Introduction Preface: Personal Knowledge Part I: Writing Historical Economics as if Measurement Mattered Part II: Writing Economics and History as if Meaning Mattered Index
