Mathematics and Metaphor in Economics

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It took a great deal of time and effort to write Mathematics, Metaphor and Economic Visualisability. I had been interested in physics at the time (as an educated reader, not a professional one) and the debate about "visualisability" among the early quantum theorists struck me as important for economics. I originally set out to explore this point only to find myself step by step drawn into the surprisingly vast literature on metaphor. The metaphorical nature of mathematical models in economics became the main thrust of the paper with the idea of visualisability now more clearly defined as the clarity or vividness of the metaphors which create analogies between mathematical objects and elements of the economic reality.

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