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...The core of the volume, and easily the best essay, is the first chapter, "Physics and the `Marginalist Revolution,'" an article that originally appeared in the Cambridge Journal of Economics in 1984. Here Mirowski offers the bold claims that (1) the distinguishing characteristic of the new marginalist economics of the 1870s and 1880s (at Manchester and Lausanne, at least) was not marginal utility at all, but the fact that the new theory was patterned explicitly after physics—in particular, the new physics of energy and the field--in a conscious and deliberate attempt to make economics more "scientific"; and that (2) this same nineteenth-century energetics model has persisted as the basis of modern economics, even long after its abandonment in the physical sciences.
The other essays in the book develop these basic themes, although the quality of the selections is somewhat uneven. Especially noteworthy are chapter six, a further exploration of the role of conservation principles in economics; the review of McCloskey's Rhetoric; and the first few pages of chapter ten on Morishima's Marx's Economics. Less satisfactory, however, are the chapters on Mirowski's own version of ""neo-institutionalist"" economics, which he sees as the preferred alternative to the neoclassical orthodoxy (although nowhere in the volume is a research program explicitly stated). Apparently Mirowski does not mean, by the way, the so-called "New Institutional Economics," which comprises the formal contracting and agency literature and Oliver Williamson's transaction cost economics; none of these are mentioned in the text, even though this is clearly a "hot topic" in microeconomics. In addition, there is no comment on any modern Austrian school writers, Misesian, hermeneutician or otherwise, despite the fact that the Austrians have been loudly "against mechanism" for a long time.

"Of the new generation of economic methodologists...the most talented and outspoken may be Philip Mirowski...”Against Mechanism” is an important work that deserves to be widely read, especially for its penetrating and original analysis of the meaning of the 'marginal revolution' and the problems of scientism in modern neoclassical economics. - Austrian Economics Newsletter
...the history of economic theory at its best. - Eastern Economic Journal
...a stimulating piece of work.- History of Economics Review
A fundamentally important work for economics...The volume is impressively done and highly readable...the work positively radiates authority...Excellent bibliography. A must acquisition. - Choice

..Mirowski...is usually extremely perceptive in his criticisms...He is one of those rare economists who is fun to read. His scope of knowledge makes one feel stupid at times, but it also makes one want to learn more...The Journal of Economic Literature

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Philip Mirowski

Philip Е. Mirowski (born 21 August 1951, Jackson, Michigan) is a historian and philosopher of economic thought at the University of Notre Dame. He received a PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan in 1979.

Philip Mirowski is Carl Koch Chair of Economics and the History and Philosophy of Science, and Fellow of the Reilly Center, University of Notre Dame. He is author of, among others, Machine Dreams (2002), The Effortless Economy of Science? (2004), More Heat than Light (1989), Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste (2013), and ScienceMart: privatizing American science (2011). He is editor of Agreement on Demand (2006) and The Road from Mont Pèlerin: the making of the neoliberal thought collective (2009), and Building Chicago Economics (2011) among other works. Outside of ongoing research on the history and analysis of the commercialization of science, he is also working on a computational complexity approach to the crisis, and a new book on the history of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economics, sometimes called the Nobel. He was awarded the Ludwig Fleck Prize from 4S in 2006, and has been visiting professor at Yale, Oxford, NYU, Duke, Paris, the University of Technology-Sydney and the University of Amsterdam.

Личен сайт: http://www.eoht.info/page/Philip+Mirowski