6. The Differential Equations of Mathematical Economics
In order to appraise adequately the idea that the differential equations of mathematical economics could be utilized for socialist economic calculation, we must remember what these equations really mean.
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Preface to Revised Edition by Muray N. Rothbard
ONE* OF THE UNHAPPY CASUALTIES of World War I, it seems, was the old-fashioned treatise on economic “principles.” Before World War I, the standard method, both of presenting and advancing economic thought, was to write a disquisition setting forth one’s vision of the corpus of economic science.
1. The Fundamentals of Human Action
1. The Concept of Action
THE DISTINCTIVE AND CRUCIAL FEATURE in the study of man is the concept of action.1 Human action is defined simply as purposeful behavior. It is therefore sharply distinguishable from those observed movements which, from the point of view of man, are not purposeful.
2. First Implications of the Concept
The first truth to be discovered about human action is that it can be undertaken only by individual “actors.” Only individuals have ends and can act to attain them. There are no such things as ends of or actions by “groups,” “collectives,” or “States,” which do not take place as actions by various specific individuals. “Societies” or “groups” have no independent existence aside from the actions of their individual members.
3. Further Implications: The Means
The means to satisfy man’s wants are called goods.
Part Five: Social Cooperation Without a Market
Chapter XXV. The Imaginary Constuction of a Socialist Society
1. The Historical Origin of the Socialist Idea
When the social philosophers of the eighteenth century laid the foundations of praxeology and economics, they were confronted with an almost universally accepted and uncontested distinction between the petty selfish individuals and the state, the representative of the interests of the whole society. However, at that time the deification process which finally elevated the men managing the social apparatus of coercion and compulsion into the ranks of the gods was not yet completed.
