ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: "The Necessary May Speak": Abba Lerner and the visualization of economics, 1929-1944
Author: GIRAUD Yann
Most present-day economists regard diagrams as a useful pedagogical device. Historians of economics, on the other hand, associate their significance to the early developments of mathematical economics in the late 19th century. In this paper devoted to the use of visual representation in the works of the young Abba Lerner, we argue that diagrams, far from being mere instruments of communication, served the purpose of abstraction by allowing for the construction of a highly theoretical world through simplification. This simplification process is shown to be very similar to the way early 20th century abstract artists used planes and colors to create pictorial life. Evidence of this is found in Lerner’s training at the London School of Economics and in his early theoretical works, but also in Lerner’s experience as a painter and sculptor, who studied under Hans Hofmann, the famous art teacher and leader of the American expressionist school.
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