What Shall We Do with Economic Science?

Abstract

ROFESSOR Lancelot Hogben in the introductory chapter of his book Mathematics for the Million writes: History shows that superstitions are not manufactured by the plain man. Our studies of mathematics are going to show us that whenever the culture of a people loses contact with the common life of mankind and becomes exclusively the plaything of a leisure class, it is becoming a priestcraft. It is destined to end, as does all priestcraft, in superstition.' This belief has been voiced before, and it is sometimes intended as a piece of advice to ordinary people to inform themselves more fully of what is going on in the world of intellectual specialists. Actually the advice should be good in both directions-to specialists as well as to the uninformed-but in the modern world of endowed schools and official support professors have little incentive to keep in touch with the common life of mankind unless their work is understood and criticized by ordinary people, and, when necessary, challenged. Two interesting attitudes can be observed today among educated people outside the academic or professional traditions. They show, on the one hand, a growing interest in simple and easy popularizations of theories in the natural sciences, and, on the other, a growing disgust with theories of economics and sociology. Perhaps there are dangers in popularizations, but