The interdisciplinary project to unite the field of mathematics with the social and biological sciences marks the work of Vito Volterra, one of Italy’s most prominent mathematicians of the twentieth century. This paper explores the connections between Volterra’s 1901 inaugural address at the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome and the work of two of his contemporaries, Léon Walras and Irving Fisher. All three thinkers were ardent advocates of the mathematical turn in economic thinking. This paper argues, however, that it is the previously unexplored relationship between Volterra and Fisher that sheds the most light on the way in which mechanical physics contributed to the project of mathematization within economics more generally. Furthermore, it explores the way in which mathematical inquiry postulated a new and coherent abstraction of the economy, at the same time that it gave epistemological authority to the economist.

中文翻译：

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数学是灯笼：VITO VOLTERRA、LÉON WALRAS 和 IRVING FISHER 谈经济学的数学化

将数学领域与社会和生物科学结合起来的跨学科项目标志着二十世纪意大利最杰出的数学家之一维托·沃尔泰拉的工作。本文探讨了沃尔泰拉 1901 年在罗马林赛学院的就职演说与他的两位同时代人莱昂·瓦尔拉斯和欧文·费舍尔的作品之间的联系。这三位思想家都是经济思维中数学转向的热心倡导者。然而，本文认为，正是沃尔泰拉和费舍尔之间先前未被探索的关系，最能阐明机械物理学对经济学中数学化项目的贡献。此外，它探讨了数学探究假设经济的新的和连贯的抽象的方式，