How Cardinal Utility Entered Economic Analysis, 1909-1944

@article{Moscati2013HowCU,
  title={How Cardinal Utility Entered Economic Analysis, 1909-1944},
  author={Ivan Moscati},
  journal={Philosophy \& Methodology of Economics eJournal},
  year={2013}
}
  • Ivan Moscati
  • Published 7 July 2013
  • Economics
  • Philosophy & Methodology of Economics eJournal
The paper illustrates the methodological and analytical issues that characterised, as well as the personal and institutional aspects that informed the discussions leading to the definition of the current notion of cardinal utility as utility unique up to positive linear transformations. As originally this type of utility was not called 'cardinal', the paper also investigates the terminological question of when and how the expression 'cardinal' was coupled with positive linear transformations… 
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Methods Citations
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Were Jevons, Menger and Walras Really Cardinalists? On the Notion of Measurement in Utility Theory, Psychology, Mathematics and Other Disciplines, ca. 1870-1910
The paper argues that the canonical dichotomy between cardinal utility and ordinal utility is inadequate to tell the history of utility theory, and that a third form of utility consistent with the…
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