The Surprising Ubiquity of the Samuelson Configuration: Paul Samuelson and the Natural Sciences

AbstractThis chapter appraises one aspect of how Samuelson adopted the methods of physics for economics. Samuelson is considered a leader in adopting the concepts of optimization with constraints to economics. The chapter grasps the source of this principle in the little used and obscure writings of the physicist James Clerk Maxwell. It prices Samuelson from the angles of physics and mathematics. Samuelson reasoned in terms of physical axioms and their order. In economic analysis, the terms ‘price’ and ‘quantity’ are used to replace such concepts as ‘pressure’ and ‘volume’ from physics. From the area of classical mechanics, Samuelson borrowed the law of conservation of (mechanical) energy. This conservation model has been a workhorse in modern economics in optimization problems, and shows no sign of weakening in the 21st century.