Background
Mirowski, Philip Edward was born on August 21, 1951 in Jackson, Michigan, United States. Son of Edward and Elizabeth Mirowski.
( A leading scholar of the history and philosophy of econ...)
A leading scholar of the history and philosophy of economic thought, Philip Mirowski argues that there has been a top-to-bottom transformation in how scientific research is organized and funded in Western countries over the past two decades and that these changes necessitate a reexamination of the ways that science and economics interact. Mirowski insists on the need to bring together the insights of economics, science studies, and the philosophy of science in order to understand how and why particular research programs get stabilized through interdisciplinary appropriation, controlled attributions of error, and funding restrictions. Mirowski contends that neoclassical economists have persistently presumed and advanced an “effortless economy of science,” a misleading model of a self-sufficient and conceptually self-referential social structure that transcends market operations in pursuit of absolute truth. In the stunning essays collected here, he presents a radical critique of the ways that neoclassical economics is used to support, explain, and legitimate the current social practices underlying the funding and selection of “successful” science projects. He questions a host of theories, including the portraits of science put forth by Karl Popper, Michael Polanyi, and Thomas Kuhn. Among the many topics he examines are the social stabilization of quantitative measurement, the repressed history of econometrics, and the social construction of the laws of supply and demand and their putative opposite, the gift economy. In The Effortless Economy of Science? Mirowski moves beyond grand abstractions about science, truth, and democracy in order to begin to talk about the way science is lived and practiced today.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0822333228/?tag=2022091-20
(This is a history of how physics has drawn some inspirati...)
This is a history of how physics has drawn some inspiration from economics and how economics has sought to emulate physics, especially with regard to the theory of value.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EQC0WR4/?tag=2022091-20
(This is a history of how physics has drawn some inspirati...)
This is a history of how physics has drawn some inspiration from economics and how economics has sought to emulate physics, especially with regard to the theory of value. The author traces the development of the energy concept in Western physics and its subsequent effect on the invention and promulgation of neoclassical economics, the modern orthodox theory.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521426898/?tag=2022091-20
( This trenchant study analyzes the rise and decline in t...)
This trenchant study analyzes the rise and decline in the quality and format of science in America since World War II. During the Cold War, the U.S. government amply funded basic research in science and medicine. Starting in the 1980s, however, this support began to decline and for-profit corporations became the largest funders of research. Philip Mirowski argues that a powerful neoliberal ideology promoted a radically different view of knowledge and discovery: the fruits of scientific investigation are not a public good that should be freely available to all, but are commodities that could be monetized. Consequently, patent and intellectual property laws were greatly strengthened, universities demanded patents on the discoveries of their faculty, information sharing among researchers was impeded, and the line between universities and corporations began to blur. At the same time, corporations shed their in-house research laboratories, contracting with independent firms both in the States and abroad to supply new products. Among such firms were AT&T and IBM, whose outstanding research laboratories during much of the twentieth century produced Nobel Prize–winning work in chemistry and physics, ranging from the transistor to superconductivity. Science-Mart offers a provocative, learned, and timely critique, of interest to anyone concerned that American science—once the envy of the world—must be more than just another way to make money.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674046463/?tag=2022091-20
Economic historian philosopher university professor
Mirowski, Philip Edward was born on August 21, 1951 in Jackson, Michigan, United States. Son of Edward and Elizabeth Mirowski.
Bachelor, Michigan State University, 1973; Master of Arts in Economics, University of Michigan, 1976; Doctor of Philosophy in Economics, University of Michigan, 1979.
In his book More Heat than Light, Mirowski reveals a history of how physics has drawn inspiration from economics and how economics has sought to emulate physics, especially with regard to the theory of value. He traces the development of the energy concept in Western physics and its subsequent effect on the invention and promulgation of neoclassical economics, the modern orthodox theory. In his book Machine Dreams, Mirowski explores the historical influences of the military and the cyborg sciences on neoclassical economics.
The neglected influence of John von Neumann and his theory of automata are key themes throughout the book
Mirowski claims that many of the developments in neoclassical economics in the 20th century, from game theory to computational economics, are the unacknowledged result of von Neumann"s plans for economics. The work expands Mirowski"s vision for a computational economics, one in which various market types are constructed in a similar fashion to Noam Chomsky"s Generative grammar.
The role of economics is to explore how various market types perform in measures of complexity and efficiency, with more complicated markets being able to incorporate the effects of the less complex. By complexity Mirowski means something analogous to Computational complexity theory in computer science.
In his book Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, Mirowski concludes that neoliberal thought has become so pervasive that any countervailing evidence serves only to further convince disciples of its ultimate truth.
( A leading scholar of the history and philosophy of econ...)
(This is a history of how physics has drawn some inspirati...)
(This is a history of how physics has drawn some inspirati...)
( This trenchant study analyzes the rise and decline in t...)
(Among the early neo-classical economists, Francis Edgewor...)
('...the history of economic theory at its best.'-EASTERN ...)
Once neoliberalism became a Theory of Everything, providing a revolutionary account of self, knowledge, information, markets, and government, it could no longer be falsified by anything as trifling as data from the “real” economy.
Member American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Economics Association, History Science Society, History Economics Society, Society for Social Studies of Science (Ludwig Fleck prize 2006), Philosophy of Science Association.
Married Pamela Margaret Cook, June 14, 1986.