In Theory and History , Chapter 11 , Mises discusses the two kinds of causation resorted to by man. First he declares: “The natural sciences do not know anything about final causes;” “Final cause” is Aristotelean terminology for a purpose or end; or as Aristotle put it, “that for the sake of which a thing is done”. Mises goes on: “inquiry and
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
Genghis Khan . Genghis Khan has been branded the greenest invader in history – after his murderous conquests killed so many people that huge swathes of cultivated land returned to forest. The Mongol leader, who established a vast empire between the 13th and 14th centuries, helped remove nearly 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, claims
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
Here is a first go at a new podcast: “Mises Weekly”, a two-hour discussion of all the previous week’s Mises Daily Articles between myself and Abhi Mallick. Sorry, audio quality on this one is not too good. But let us know if this is something we should pursue
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
Two $1,000 prizes were awarded at last week’s 2012 Austrian Scholars Conference for outstanding essays. Fittingly, in the ASC celebrating the centennial of Mises’ first magnum opus, The Theory of Money and Credit (although, in the conference, Guido Hulsmann explained, among other mistranslations in the English edition of the book, how “credit”
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.