Philosophy and Methodology

Philosopher William MacAskill of Oxford University is calling for "Effective Altruism" as a way to deal with long-term future issues. Reviewer David Gordon finds flaws in MacAskill's moral calculations.

Why do societies implode into a mass of statism and tyranny? David Gordon finds some answers with philosopher R.G. Collingwood.

In the department of economy, an act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects.

Responding to an attack on Ludwig von Mises in the socialist publication Jacobin, Professor Wiśniewski corrects the errors and sets the record straight.

Language is at the front lines of the battle over institutions.

Murray Rothbard explains money in his book The Mystery of Banking. The purchasing power of the dollar varies inversely with the supply of dollars, and directly with the demand. 

What has happened here, and elsewhere, is that Mises has strayed off his great stomping ground, praxeology, and into ethics, where he is, Rothbard believes, tragically wrong.

"In order to succeed, human action must comply not only with what are called the laws of nature, but also with specific laws of human action."

The people of the USSR rightly considered Gorbachev to be just another Communist Party hack. His "reforms" were only expedient measures designed to preserve communism. 

"As long as pseudophilosophies retain their undeserved prestige, the average intellectual will go on blaming capitalism for all the disastrous effects of anticapitalist schemes and devices."