The Fixed Point: A Review of John von Neumann’s Methodology

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of John von Neumann’s methodology and provides a criticism of ’ordinary’ historical explanations concerning von Neumann’s writings. His broad multidisciplinary works are traditionally analysed within separate fields, completely detached from social and multidisciplinary context. This can often lead to oversimplified historical explanations. As an illustration of this I discuss one of his lesser-known articles which plays a central role in general economics in the postwar period. This is, however, the only one which concerns directly theoretical economics. I review the possible explanations behind his motivation for writing this article and propose a different historical approach to outlining his exceptional train of thoughts.