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Mainstream economics tends to view its historical process of mathematicization as a "powerful, irresistible current of thought" (Debreu), perfectly motivated by the application of deductive methodology to a quantified object-domain. This interpretation stands in sharp contrast to the historical background of mathematical economics as founded by Léon Walras: the French school of political economy following J.-B. Say combines deductivism with a strong resistance to mathematicization. Rather than simply being an emulation of rational mechanics, Walrasian general equilibrium theory is motivated by natural law issues related to the "social question". ; Mainstream economics tends to view its historical process of mathematicization as a "powerful, irresistible current of thought" (Debreu), perfectly motivated by the application of deductive methodology to a quantified object-domain. This interpretation stands in sharp contrast to the historical background of mathematical economics as founded by Léon Walras: the French school of political economy following J.-B. Say combines deductivism with a strong resistance to mathematicization. Rather than simply being an emulation of rational mechanics, Walrasian general equilibrium theory is motivated by natural law issues related to the "social question".

Edmund S. Phelps ist ein einflussreicher Makroökonom. Ihm sind bahnbrechende Einsichten bei der mikroökonomischen Modellierung nicht-walrasianischer Erwartungsgleichgewichte gelungen. Seine Analyse von Anreizlöhnen und unfreiwilliger Arbeitslosigkeit mündet in die Vorstellung einer natürlichen Arbeitslosenrate. Auf dieser Grundlage hat er die keynesianische Phillipskurve nachhaltig de(kon)struiert und seinen eigenen Ansatz einer strukturalistischen Makroökonomik entwickelt. Zugleich ist Phelps aber auch ein philosophisch interessierter Autor. Er hat sich intensiv mit der Rawlsschen Gerechtigkeitstheorie beschäftigt und gesellschaftspolitische Vorschläge entwickelt, wie die moderne Wachstumsökonomie zugleich dynamischer und inklusiver gestaltet werden kann. Die These zur Interpretation seines Gesamtwerks lautet: Sowohl seine positiven als auch seine normativen Analysen folgen einem modernistischen Theoriebildungsimpuls, der informationsökonomisch und vitalistisch umgesetzt wird. ; Edmund S. Phelps is a highly influential macroeconomist. His pathbreaking insights include modelling non-walrasian expectation equilibria. His analysis of incentive wages and involuntary unemployment led to the idea of a natural rate of unemployment, which he used to de(con)struct the Keynesian notion of a Phillips curve and to develop instead his own structuralist approach to macroeconomics. At the same time, Phelps is interested in philosophy. Influenced by John Rawls' theory of justice, he has worked out proposals that aim at making the modern growth society both more dynamic and more inclusive. His works can be interpreted this way: His positive as well as his normative analyses follow a modernistic impulse, which leads him to information economics and vitalistic philosophy.