Philosophy and Methodology

Recorded at Mises University 2004.

In a recent post on Liberty and Power, one of the posters refers to: “‘polycentric’ law, or the idea that multiple forms of law can overlap within

Sidney Hook used to tell his classes that one brilliant sentence on a test would be sufficient to earn an "A." Judged by this standard, Hook’s friend Tibor Machan merits very high marks for Putting Humans First.

Pro-market movies seem atypical for Hollywood, and a thoughtful summer blockbuster seems almost an oxymoron.

The other day I somehow started thinking about various quirks in a private legal framework, and (unfortunately perhaps for you, dear reader) this i

The Jedi sacrifice truth and justice to ambition, writes Adam Young. May this serve as a warning to all who see in emergency circumstances a reason to betray principles and adopt the methods of the Dark Side. 

Recorded at the Mises Institute on 15 June 2005.

The founder of the Chicago School, Frank Knight, was an avowed egalitarian. Rousseau was his influence. Jacobins believed in mass democracy and politics as the only way to implement their ideas. They hated aristocrats and religious leaders. Knight believed in progressive taxation. He wanted neocon social democracy.

The debate still continues. It is all about Mises’ initial article and then book on Socialism in 1922. He demonstrated the necessity of the price system and showed how subjective values were transformed into objective prices which could be used as meaningful cardinal numbers in economic calculation.

Gene Callahan recounts a forgotten period of intellectual history when the obsession with modelling crowded out the search for truth.