As discussed in my last post , the ancient Greek poet Hesiod was granted his superior poetical powers in a miraculous encounter with the Muses. At least that is how Hesiod himself says it happened. We may not take his word for it, but we should be glad that he (or one of his successors), unlike most of his poetical contemporaries, took the trouble
And just like with the Climategate emails, the greens have hammered it in themselves with a star-studded ad that portrays the totalitarian mindset so perfectly and so disgustingly, that it stands alone, and without comment as a self-indictment. Warning: the video is very graphic in terms of gore. The backlash was so quick and so universal, that
From the New York Times, “ Europe Is Turning Its Back on Keynes’s Cure for Recession “: The British economist John Maynard Keynes may live on in popular legend as the world’s most influential economist. But in much of Europe, and most acutely here in the land of his birth, his view that deficit spending by governments is crucial to avoiding a long
On Reddit, some concerned soul pointed out that , “Boycotting BP hurts the local station owner a lot more than BP corporate,” citing a NPR story . Of course, most BP boycotters would be pained to realize that it also would likely hurt the Gulf clean-up itself. As I pointed out in the comments , if a firm’s share price drops, it has greater
There is a lot of talk about “social entrepreneurship” and “Doing Well by Doing Good”. What is almost completely ignored, however, is the inherent social function of all entrepreneurship. What people need to become more familiar with is the opposite of the usual phrase; they need to become familiar with the notion of Doing Good by Doing Well . A
GMU economist Peter Boettke writes : As of January 1, 2010, we are changing our name to “Coordination Problem”. This name change is symbolic as well as substantive. The term “Austrian economics” has become as much a hindrance to the advancement of thought as a convenient shorthand to signal certain methodological and analytical presumptions. We
The Free Market 28, no. 7 (July 2010) Many people are rightly concerned about economic conditions, which are far more grim than the official statistics suggest. Young people out of college are facing a stagnant job market. Businesses have rethought expansion plans. Retrenchment continues to be the watchword in nearly every area of commercial
Man’s quest for the great mysteries of the universe began long before philosophy proper is thought to have begun, with the life and thought of Thales of Miletus. In fact the calling of the philosopher was anticipated by, and perhaps grew out of, the callings of the Sage, the Poet, the Singer, the Prophet, and even the Priest. Let us meet one of
In ancient times, those who favored teleological interpretations of the cosmos, also tended to favor the epistemology of revelation. In Theory and History Chapter 3 , Mises discusses revelation: Revealed religion derives its authority and authenticity from the communication to man of the Supreme Being’s will. It gives the faithful indisputable
A thinker’s journey is never done. But at this stage in mine, to me it seems evident that the thought of Ludwig von Mises is, thus far, the apogee of man’s age-old quest for soundness of thought. In the blog posts that follow, I will put that impression to the test in reflections on the history of “big ideas”, viewed through the lens of Mises’
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.