Punctuations and Continuity in General Equilibrium Analysis: An Essay in Evolutionary Epistemology

This essay attempts to construct an evolutionary epistemology to understand the historical evolution of general equilibrium analysis since Leon Walras' 1874 book. The essay argues that the approaches of Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, and Larry Laudan are not helpful in jointly understanding punctuations and continuity in the historical evolution. An evolutionary epistemology that sees science as an adaptive complex system, that does not require scientists to be rational, and that is naturalist, unlike a priori epistemologies, provides us with new clues to make sense of both the dual evolution of general equilibrium analysis and the general equilibrium economist, and the state of mainstream economics in the 21st century.