Chapter 8: 102-108

In the book Pasteur’s Quadrant, scientist Donald Stokes discusses the different motivations behind deciding to do scientific research. Stokes believes that the most rewarding research is that done “seeking to expand the frontiers of knowledge in connection with a pressing problem.” Stokes believed John Maynard Keynes’s research fit under this category. But as brilliant as Keynes was, he had a hard time communicating how his ideas worked. He cared more about getting results than making sure people understood his “science.” To bridge the gap between himself and other economists, he hired an “interpreter.” John Hicks worked brilliantly and was able to simplify Keynes’s ideas using mathematics in a paper titled “Mr. Keynes and the Classics.” Once Keynes’s ideas were simplified, they spread rapidly and spawned two new classifications of economists: Modernists and Keynesians. The author described Keynesians as doctors; they wanted to find a cure for the economic troubles of our country. Modernists believed economic understanding was “an end in itself” and that is wasn’t very applicable to the real world.

The section ends by talking about John Hicks's most memorable work, Value and Capital. In the book he is very firm on the idea of perfect competition. He believes that without assuming perfect competition, the general equilibrium theory wouldn't work the way that it is supposed to.