Irving Fisher Essay
Irving Fisher - His Life
Fisher was born in New York state in 1867. He studied science and philosophy at Yale. Here he had a wide variety of interests. For example, he published poetry and works on astronomy, mechanics, and geometry. Despite all of these interests, Fisher was most interested in mathematics and economics. Yale did not have an Economics Department at the time. Regardless, Fisher continued with his interests and earned the first Ph.D. in economics ever awarded by Yale. Fisher stayed at Yale for his whole career.
Fisher had many interests. Due to developing and surviving tuberculosis in his early 30s Fisher had a great interest in health and hygiene. He wrote a national best-seller titled How to Live: Rules for Healthful Living …show more content…
Since no effort is necessary to comprehend his meaning, there is a tendency to underestimate the complexity and, in many instances, the originality of his thinking. In contrast to Marx and Keynes, he could develop his ideas fully, specify them, and so strip them of their obscurities and contradictions that the formulas which emerged were extraordinarily plain and clear. Whatever the difficulty of the subject, Fisher excelled at distinguishing the theoretical from the practical, at using only perfectly defined concepts, at identifying problems, treating each in a concise, clear paragraph, and at relegating to appendixes elements that were accessory to the main theme. His essential contribution lay, first, in his reduction of the copious accumulation of inconsistent notions in earlier writings to a contradiction-free synthesis that made full use of their valid elements and, second, in his lucid presentation of this synthesis.
The remarkable characteristic of Fisher’s work is that it contains no basic error. Taken as a whole, and aside from a few minor errors of detail, it offers only valid ideas. His work is characterized by the ability to clarify, whether analytically or synthetically, rather than by the power of creative imagination. This is where Fisher’s true originality is to be
Fisher was born in New York state in 1867. He studied science and philosophy at Yale. Here he had a wide variety of interests. For example, he published poetry and works on astronomy, mechanics, and geometry. Despite all of these interests, Fisher was most interested in mathematics and economics. Yale did not have an Economics Department at the time. Regardless, Fisher continued with his interests and earned the first Ph.D. in economics ever awarded by Yale. Fisher stayed at Yale for his whole career.
Fisher had many interests. Due to developing and surviving tuberculosis in his early 30s Fisher had a great interest in health and hygiene. He wrote a national best-seller titled How to Live: Rules for Healthful Living …show more content…
Since no effort is necessary to comprehend his meaning, there is a tendency to underestimate the complexity and, in many instances, the originality of his thinking. In contrast to Marx and Keynes, he could develop his ideas fully, specify them, and so strip them of their obscurities and contradictions that the formulas which emerged were extraordinarily plain and clear. Whatever the difficulty of the subject, Fisher excelled at distinguishing the theoretical from the practical, at using only perfectly defined concepts, at identifying problems, treating each in a concise, clear paragraph, and at relegating to appendixes elements that were accessory to the main theme. His essential contribution lay, first, in his reduction of the copious accumulation of inconsistent notions in earlier writings to a contradiction-free synthesis that made full use of their valid elements and, second, in his lucid presentation of this synthesis.
The remarkable characteristic of Fisher’s work is that it contains no basic error. Taken as a whole, and aside from a few minor errors of detail, it offers only valid ideas. His work is characterized by the ability to clarify, whether analytically or synthetically, rather than by the power of creative imagination. This is where Fisher’s true originality is to be