Philosophy and Methodology

Quantitative methods can't be applied to human action, which is purposeful and not a mere reflex. For this reason, mathematical formulas can only describe events, never explain them.

Some people use the concept of negative externalities to argue for government to force people toward "what is best for them." An example of this is the call for a consumption tax.

Learning the history of economic thought is important not because every economist has been right, but because we can learn from their mistakes.

Choosing between labor and leisure is not like choosing between apples and oranges. Many people like both kinds of fruit. But labor involves disutility, so a better choice is this: between apples and rotten oranges.

If we insist on "collective" responsibility assigned to entire nations, then we must naturally punish the innocent along with the guilty.

Bob Murphy explains why the Intelligent Design movement will be to the natural sciences what the Public Choice school in economics is to the social sciences.

Can a scientific law allow us to predict the course of history? Marxists lean in this direction, but Karl Popper says it's impossible. Is he right?

Economics today poses as a predictive discipline which fails to correctly predict anything; a prescriptive discipline which prescribes the wrong policies; and an empirical discipline which collects data but misses the point.

Susan Neiman contends Southerners need to acknowledge guilt for slavery, segregation, and lynching, and "work off" the past. But collective responsibility is a chimera, and a dangerous one at that.

"The reality must be faced that the new…colony of Pennsylvania lived for the greater part of four years in a de facto condition of individual anarchism, and seemed none the worse for the experience."