“Axiom, theorem, corollary &c.”: Condorcet and mathematical economics

Excerpt

Condorcet's reputation among economists has recently been the subject, more than two centuries after his death in 1794, of an impressive improvement. JSTOR, the online source of access to scholarly articles, and an institution which corresponds to at least two of Condorcet's own preoccupations, with public information and with the possibility of quantification, provides a good indicator. Condorcet was referred to in 36 different articles published in the 1990s in economics journals, more frequently than Turgot (16 articles) and Quesnay (12 articles) together. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the numbers of references were respectively (52, 59, 56); in the period before 1960, (38, 123, 127.) In political science journals, Condorcet was referred to in 71 different articles in the 1990s, compared to two for Turgot and five for Quesnay (http://​uk.​jstor.​org, accessed through the Cambridge University Library on July 3, 2003). …