Philosophy and Methodology

Special lecture presented at the Mises Institute, 27 June 2006

Everyone has an ultimate end. What should the content of this end be? No concept of happiness exists without integrating the interest of others. Being an agent is being a living organism. Living organisms have needs. Aristotle feels humans are neither beasts nor God. Morality requires a minimum of prudence (self) and benevolence (others).

Claims of ultimate ends, like happiness or well-being, are impossible, says Hobbes. In this life, the fact that you are still acting shows that you have not achieved any ultimate end. Does action really express dissatisfaction? You can act to keep something happening, rather than to try to change things.

Economics deals with the preferences you are actually acting on. The judgment you are not acting on could still be around. So, action does not imply total judgment.

Praxeology is a set of conceptual tools about the theory of action. It is the basis of economic theory. Whereas much has been fleshed out about the economics of human action, there is little about the ethics and natural rights of human action.

From the book For A New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, as narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

They seem blissfully unaware that once the power to define words is given to the state, it merely depends on who runs the state in order for the definition to be changed, and they seem too ready to tinker with the US Constitution in order to manage something that should have absolutely nothing to do with the state.

These are but a few highlights from the outstanding presentations made at the first meeting of the Property and Freedom Society; which stands for an uncompromising intellectual radicalism. If only Murray, that joyous, uncompromising intellectual radical could have been there with us.

Yes, we've all heard the clichés about the greater good. I've never met a serial killer, a sniper, or the leader of a suicide cult. But I'm willing to bet that they too believe that they served a greater good.

I wanted to show students that economics stems from ordinary human behavior in the real world we face every day. By showing them that trade, money, savings, competition, and prices all have distinctly human origins and purposes, I hoped to help them make better sense out of the "economics" they will some day be exposed to.