I was wondering how Economists tried to measure the satisfaction that one can gain from using certain goods or service.to what extent we can justify the calculation made by measuring the satisfaction one can get?As originally conceived, utility was taken to be a subjective measure of strength of feeling. An item that might be described as worth “40 utils” was to be interpreted to yield “twice as much pleasure” as one valued at 20 utils.1
As we can obseve from our class lesson measuring and equating variables in social science is challenging.In fact a thery which is backed by mathematical equastion is more relaible.so are we tring to approach where natural science reach through the help of mathematics?can mathemacis be a best tool to analize theories in social science.
source
1.http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/620713/utility/34299/Utility-measurement-and-ordinal-utility
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
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2 comments:
I suppose mathematics is probably the best tool to analyze theories in social science. why? Everything else that comes to mind is much less apt.
By the use if mathematics, consumers, producer etc are all given a similar idea as to what level of utility a product gives. 20 utils means 20 utils to everybody. However, if language was the main tool, very satisfying would mean different degrees of satisfaction to different people.
Hope you understand what im saying(or trying to say)
Well, I suppose we are starting to examine here the usefulness of mathematics in other disciplines. We'll be getting on to this in class before too long. For now, we can say that mathematics allows us to do many things, including, as Antye504 says, creating a common standard for measurement and comparison.
But is there a price to be paid for this? Can a subject like economics be over-mathematized? What might get overlooked? I'd be really interested to hear some replies to this idea...
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