What a wonderful description of economics. Some economics students in France must have had this in mind when they complained about the unreality of the dogma they were being fed in their courses. In June of 2000 a small group of these economics students put on the web a petition protesting against economics' "uncontrolled use of mathematics". This indulgence, it said, creates "a true schizophrenia" because the mathematics has "become an end in itself" resulting in an "autistic science". The petition called for an end both to this and to the repressive domination of neoclassical theory in the curriculum. The students called instead for a pluralism of approaches with emphasis on engagement with economic realities. Within two weeks the student petition had 150 signatures, many from France's most prestigious universities. The students publicized these results. They were protesting against:

• economics "uncontrolled use" and treatment of mathematics as "an end in itself", and the resulting "autistic science", the repressive domination of neoclassical theory and derivative approaches in the curriculum, and
• the dogmatic teaching style, which leaves no place for critical and reflective thought.

The petition argued in favor of:

• engagement with empirical and concrete economic realities,
• prioritizing science over scientism,
• a pluralism of approaches adapted to the complexity of economic objects and to the uncertainty surrounding most of the big economic questions, and
• their professors initiating reforms to rescue economics from its autistic and socially irresponsible state.

On the 21st of June Le Monde picked up the story. It featured a lengthy and sympathetic article on the students' call for reform. Other French newspapers and magazines, as well as TV and radio, soon followed with the result that the number of signatures on the economics students' petition reached 600.

The perceived seriousness of the controversy increased when at the end of June some professors launched a petition of their own, backing the students and offering further analysis and evidence supporting the need for reform. The French minister of education announced that he was looking into the matter. Then in July everyone left for "the long vac".

Now they are returning and Le Monde has reopened the public debate. So too has the national radio network, "French Culture", which on 21 September carried a program on the controversy, featuring two students and a professor from the post-autistic camp.

This resulted in the formation of the "post autistic economics" movement. They have a web site, and provide newsletters with discussion of the issues to anyone who signs up.

Read all about it at www.paecon.net featuring the following:

• hyperlinks with all petition websites,
• a geographical index of petition websites,
• a students' petition and a teachers' petition which can be "signed" by anyone visiting the site, and lists of the petition signatories,
• documents related to the post-autistic economics movement, back issues of the post-autistic economics newsletter. The first newsletter appeared in Sept 2000.

Students in the UK and in the USA have also joined in with their own petitions.

Economics has not experienced such pressure to change since the 1930s. Then the complaint was its inability to explain the Great Depression and to effect a recovery. It responded by inventing macroeconomics. Today, the indictment is both more general and more serious: economics as taught in universities neither explains contemporary reality nor provides a framework for the critical debate of issues in democratic societies. The PAE Movement is about bringing economists of goodwill together to change that.