Contra critical theorists, who claim human reason is nothing more than a social construct, reason is both understandable and universal. We cannot abandon it, for if we do, we abandon liberty itself.
Nobel-winning economist Joe Stiglitz believes that the path to freedom is . . . less freedom. Of course, he doesn’t package his advocacy of socialism as the diminishing of freedom but rather as expanding freedom by restraining economic freedom.
The watchword in higher education today is decolonization, which depends upon what Ludwig von Mises called racial polylogism. Mises understood that polylogism undermines the very foundations of scientific thought.
Praxeology is the key to understanding economic relationships. While Ludwig von Mises emphasized human action while making economic observations, Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer emphasized the importance of how individuals view the world.
The rage among academic elites and multiculturalists is the insistence that one cannot apply Western economic analysis to different cultures. However, Ludwig von Mises insisted that economics is a universal science.
While Mises was a utilitarian, he believed people acted to improve their lot because of a felt uneasiness that could be rectified through free markets.
While Austrian and feminist critiques of neoclassical economics have some similarities, they also differ strongly on important points. Feminist critiques are based upon what Mises called polylogism, while Austrian critiques are based upon praxeology.
What are property rights and how do we define them? The late Butler Shaffer argued that they come from our “will to own.”
Mainstream economists believe that economic theory is valid when it “predicts” economic actions or trends. Austrian economists, however, say that the purpose of economic theory is to explain economic events.
The attempt by the mainstream economics profession to create economic literacy has turned into a movement to promote economic illiteracy.
