This book describes the radical shift in the study of economic science; where arguing with words was replaced by reasoning with mathematical models.

During the last two centuries, the way economic science is done has changed radically: it has become a social science based on mathematical models in place of words. This book describes and analyses that change - both historically and philosophically - using a series of case studies to illuminate the nature and the implications of these changes. It is not a technical book; it is written for the intelligent person who wants to understand how economics works from the inside out. This book will be of interest to economists and science studies scholars (historians, sociologists and philosophers of science). But it also aims at a wider readership in the public intellectual sphere, building on the current interest in all things economic and on the recent failure of the so-called economic model, which has shaped our beliefs and the world we live in.

List of figures, Tables, and Boxes Preface 1 Modelling as a Method of Enquiry 2 Model-Making: New Recipes, Ingredients, and Integration 3 Imagining and Imaging: Creating a New Model World 4 Character Making: Ideal Types, Idealization, and the Art of Caricature 5 Metaphors and Analogies: Choosing the World of the Model 6 Questions and Stories: Capturing the Heart of Matters 7 Model Experiments? 8 Simulation: Bringing a Mocroscope into Economics 9 Model Situations, typical Cases, and Exemplary Narratives 10 From the World in the Model to the Model in the World Index Colour plate section appears between pages 100 and 101