Theory and History by Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises's 1957 treatise on social and economic evolution, with a preface by Murray N. Rothbard.

This online edition, copyright 2000, has retained the pagination of the 1985 edition (Auburn: The Mises Institute) and the original 1957 edition (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press) for purposes of citation.

The book is also available in full in PDF format or in a beautiful offline edition.

 

Contents

Preface by Murray N. Rothbard (p. xi)

Introduction

1. Methodological Dualism (p. 1)
2. Economics and Metaphysics (p. 3)
3. Regularity and Prediction (p. 4)
4. The Concept of the Laws of Nature (p. 5)
5. The Limitations of Human Knowledge (p. 8)
6. Regularity and Choosing (p. 9)
7. Means and Ends (p. 12)

 

 

 

Chapter 1. Judgements of Value

1. Judgments of Value and Propositions of Existence (p. 19)
2. Valuation and Action (p. 20)
3. The Subjectivit of Valuation (p. 22)
4. The Logical and Syntactical Structure of Judgments of Value (p. 23)

Chapter 2. Knowledge And Value

1. The Bias Doctrine (p. 26)
2. Common Weal versus Special Interests (p. 28)
3. Economics and Value (p. 32)
4. Bias and Intolerance (p. 34)

Chapter 3. The Quest for Absolute Values

1. The Issue (p. 35)
2. Conflicts with Society (p. 37)
3. A Remark on the Alleged Medieval Unanimity (p. 42)
4. The Idea of Natural Law (p. 44)
5. Revelation (p. 49)
6. Atheistic Intuition (p. 50)
7. The Idea of Justice (p. 51)
8. The Utilitarian Doctrine Restated (p. 55)
9. On Aesthetic Values (p. 61)
10. The Historical Significance of the Quest for Absolute Values (p. 63)

Chapter 4. The Negation of Valuation

 

Chapter 5. Determinism and Its Critics

1. Determinism (p. 73)
2. The Negation of Ideological Factors (p. 75)
3. The Free-Will Controversy (p. 76)
4. Foreordination and Fatalism (p. 78)
5. Determinism and Penology (p. 82)
6. Determinism and Statistics (p. 84)
7. The Autonomy of the Sciences of Human Action (p. 92)

Chapter 6. Materialism

1. Two Varieties of Materialism (p. 94)
2. The Secretion Analogy (p. 97)
3. The Political Implications of Materialism (p. 99)

Chapter 7. Dialectical Materialism

1. Dialectics and Marxism (p. 102)
2. The Material Productive Forces (p. 106)
3. The Class Struggle (p. 112)
4. The Ideological Impregnation of Thought (p. 122)
5. The Conflict of Ideologies (p. 130)
6. Ideas and Interests (p. 133)
7. The Class Interests of the Bourgeoisie (p. 142)
8. The Critics of Marxism (p. 147)
9. Marxian Materialism and Socialism (p. 155)

Chapter 8. Philosophy of History

1. The Theme of History (p. 159)
2. The Theme of the Philosophy of History (p. 162)
3. The Difference between the Point of View of History and That of Philosophy of History (p. 166)
4. Philosophy of History and the Idea of God (p. 171)
5. Activistic Determinism and Fatalistic Determinism (p. 177)

 

Chapter 9. The Concept of Historical Individuality

1. The Ultimate Given of History (p. 183)
2. The Role of the Individual in History (p. 184)
3. The Chimera of the Group Mind (p. 188)
4. Planning History (p. 195)

Chapter 10. Historicism

1. The Meaning of Historicism (p. 198)
2. The Rejection of Economics (p. 205)
3. The Quest for Laws of Historical Change (p. 210)
4. Historicist Relativism (p. 214)
5. Dissolving History (p. 219)
6. Undoing History (p. 227)
7. Undoing Economic History (p. 234)

Chapter 11. The Challenge of Scientism

1. Positivism and Behaviorism (p. 240)
2. The Collectivist Dogma (p. 250)
3. The Concept of the Social Sciences (p. 256)
4. The Nature of Mass Phenomena (p. 259)

Chapter 12. Psychology and Thymology

1. Naturalistic Psychology and Thymology (p. 264)
2. Thymology and Praxeology (p. 271)
3. Thymology as a Historical Discipline (p. 272)
4. History and Fiction (p. 274)
5. Rationalization (p. 280)
6. Introspection (p. 283)

Chapter 13. Meaning and Use of the Study of History

1. The Why of History (p. 285)
2. The Historical Situation (p. 286)
3. History of the Remote Past (p. 289)
4. Falsifying History (p. 291)
5. History and Humanism (p. 293)
6. History and the Rise of Aggressive Nationalism (p. 296)
7. History and Judgments of Value (p. 298)

Chapter 14. The Epistemological Features of History

1. Prediction in the Natural Sciences (p. 303)
2. History and Prediction (p. 305)
3. The Specific Understanding of History (p. 309)
4. Thymological Experience (p. 312)
5. Real Types and Ideal Types (p. 315)

 

Chapter 15. Philosophical Interpretations of History

1. Philosophies of History and Philosophical Interpretations of History (p. 323)
2. Environmentalism (p. 324)
3. The Egalitarians' Interpretation of History (p. 328)
4. The Racial Interpretation of History (p. 332)
5. The Secularism of Western Civilization (p. 337)
6. The Rejection of Capitalism by Antisecularism (p. 340)

Chapter 16. Present-Day Trends and the Future

1. The Reversal of the Trend toward Freedom (p. 347)
2. The Rise of the Ideology of Equality in Wealth and Income (p. 351)
3. The Chimera of a Perfect State of Mankind (p. 362)
4. The Alleged Unbroken Trend toward Progress (p. 367)
5. The Suppression of "Economic" Freedom (p. 370)
6. The Uncertainty of the Future (p. 378)

Index

Glossary by Percy Greaves

This Mises e-book was prepared by Amanda Prinz