this decision. The moral dilemma for Debreu was to be fascinated by his mathematical experience of Nicolas Bourbaki, though he recoiled from it for its inadequacy towards the end of WWII. Instead of choosing for economics, he entered it by chance and remained a discreet economist throughout his entire intellectual life. In 1983, he faced the ambivalence of his intellectual life when he received the Noble Prize for ''having proven the invisible hand of Adam Smith.'' The thesis concludes pessimistically regarding the possibility of a significant economic science, but adds, in contrast, an optimistic note regarding the prospects of a post-epistemic culture in economic discourse.

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Quantitative approaches are not yet common among historians and methodologists of economics, although they are in the study of science by librarians, information scientists, sociologists, historians, and even economists. The main purpose of this essay is to reflect methodologically on the historiography of economics: is it witnessing a quantitative turn? Is such a turn desirable? We answer the first question by pointing out a 'methodological moment', in general, and a noticeable rise of quantitative studies among historians of economics during the past few years. To the second question, all contributors to this special issue bring relatively optimistic answers by highlighting the benefits of using quantitative methodologies as complements to the more traditional meta-analyses of both historians and methodologists of economics.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The aim of this paper is to explain the process of diversification of normative economics by presenting the work of two authors: Tibor Scitovsky and Amartya Sen [1933-]. While these two authors first contributed to traditional welfare analysis from within, they were subsequently involved in the development of two different, and even opposed, programs: the economics of happiness and the capability approach. They focused on different concepts of well-being: the "joy" of satisfied consumers for Scitovsky, and the "capabilities" of deprived individuals for Sen. In imposing new theoretical frameworks, applications, as well as new concepts of well-being, which are measureable, the capability approach and the economics of happiness represent two major attempts to renew normative economic analysis. Terms of use: Documents in