Abstrakt
The paper argues that the communication gap between Austrian economics and the rest of the profession could be narrowed if only the Austrians became more mathematized. Benefits as well as costs of mathematization are presented: on the one hand, mathematics is a language which is universal, more precise and more efficient than verbal language; on the other hand, mathematization may lead to a neglect of issues that are difficult to formalize, to a loss of touch with reality and to a decrease of intelligibility to lay people.
It is argued that none of the costs is of such nature as to constitute an argument for avoiding the use of mathematics altogether. In particular, it is emphasized that mathematization is not in conflict with the Austrian methodology, although some aspects of Austrian economics may be at the present state of knowledge difficult to formalize.