On \textit{Specimen theoriae novae de mensura sortis} of Daniel Bernoulli

DOI10.1007/S10203-024-00471-ZMaRDI QIDQ6938513zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Paola Modesti

Publication date 25 August 2025

Published in Decisions in Economics and Finance (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/S10203-024-00471-Z

zbMATH Keywords

\textit{Specimen theoriae novae de mensura sortis}expected utility theoryhistory of mathematics in the 18th centurylogarithmic utility

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 18th century (01A50) Utility theory (91B16)

Review text

This historical survey is devoted to the paper \textit{Specimen theoriae novae de mensura sortis} (1738) by Daniel Bernoulli (1700--1782). It ``was one of the earliest applications of differential calculus in general, and certainly the first with significant economic content. Also, it was ``the first published paper in which mathematics was applied to economics.\N\NIn addition, one can note the following comment by the author: ``Considering that it (ed: mentioned Bernoulli's paper) predates Adam Smith's (1723--1790) \textit{An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations} (1776), which is often taken as the birth of economics, we might argue that mathematics for economics existed before economics itself officially existed.\N\NThe present survey consists of five sections including an introduction. The main considerations cover the following topics:\N\begin{itemize}\N\item[--] the remarkable Bernoulli family;\N\item[--] the scientific background of Bernoulli's paper including its economic and mathematical-cultural aspects;\N\item[--] the contents of the paper, as well as the debate which ensued;\N\item[--] the influence of Bernoulli's paper on later researches.\N\end{itemize}

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