Free exchange | An impossible mind

摘要

SOME great economists are Aristotelians, discerning the logic of markets from tangible examples around them. Others are Pla-tonists, using their powers of reasoning to grasp ideal economic forms, of which actually existing markets are but flickering shadows. Kenneth Arrow, who died on February 21st aged 95, was both. His ideas gave economics some of its most compelling abstractions and most fruitful applications.