Mathiness and lying : Mathiness in the context of philosophical theories of deception

Sammanfattning: ‘Mathiness’ is a term introduced by Paul Romer in his paper “Mathiness in the Theory of Economic Growth”. It is referring to a phenomenon in the research area of economic growth; where it is common for researchers to add mathematical material into their published works, in a way that is not scientifically sound. Since this has become such a common practice within this field, these unsound papers are being accepted in peer reviewed journals, on account of the people doing the peer review being within the field and accustomed to these methods. The phenomenon has resulted in a significant amount of published research papers that claim conclusions on grounds that are less than adequate when the standards of this field is compared to standards in other fields. In particular, this is done through using the status of mathematics as scientifically rigorous, to raise the status of one’s research to an illusion of a rigorous mathematical standard, while theory of economic growth is a political science, not a mathematical one. From this background it seems as if there is some sort of deception involved in producing these research papers with mathiness influences, and the aim of this thesis is to define what kind of deception this is. I will also discuss the different implications that follow from what kind of deception one uses, and find that there might not be much of a difference between lying and other forms of deceiving in this case. This is because action is broadcasted, and so the intention of the author of the research does not play a big role in the results of the deception.