ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: The Marginal Revolution and uncertain knowledge in economics
Author: Lima Iara
Whether “the marginalist revolution” represented a discontinuity in the history of economics remains a matter of debate, particularly in what concerns theoretical foundations and/or methodological devices. This essay, inspired by Michel Foucault’s belief in the possibility of discerning the underlying configuration of thought through an investigation of ontological and epistemological conditions, offers a new approach to the controversy. Foucault did not consider “the marginal revolution” as representing a change of epistemes. However, that “revolution” may be seen as promoting two thresholds in economics: a new positivity and an epistemological shift, which resulted from a new conception of language and the emergence of a fundamental uncertainty regarding knowledge. According to this perspective, the first neoclassicals incorporated the mathematics into the formulation of theory as a means to overcome this uncertainty. This perspective offers a completely new way of conceiving that event and defies, for instance, the usual understanding of Cartesian and Newtonian influences on it.
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