Information Protectionism strikes again.
Author Lalie Walker and her editor are being sued by famous Parisian textile retailer “Marché St-Pierre” for using the store’s name in Ms. Walker’s new fiction, Aux malheurs des dames. The store claims that the Walker’s use denigrated its reputation (in the story, Marché St-Pierre is the scene of some crimes).
Last night’s session at the Austrian Scholars Conference was nothing short of magical. After a full day of presentations on new research, and a fascinating and well-delivered talk by Caroline Baum of Bloomberg, John Papola, maker of the Hayek-Keynes rap, presented his video and then gave a talk about how it was made.
In ancient times, those who favored teleological interpretations of the cosmos, also tended to favor the epistemology of revelation.
In Theory and History Chapter 3, Mises discusses revelation:
Revealed religion derives its authority and authenticity from the communication to man of the Supreme Being’s will. It gives the faithful indisputable certainty.
We might divide revelation into three classes: divine encounter, divination, and inspiration.
The idea of central planning seems, at first sight, so reasonable that it is hard to see why any intelligent person would oppose it. For one thing, it appears to be a mere extension of individual planning, which all of us practice. Every intelligent person engages in planning. A thoughtful man plans his day, his week, his year, his life work.
In Theory and History, Chapter 11, Mises discusses the two kinds of causation resorted to by man. First he declares:
“The natural sciences do not know anything about final causes;”
“Final cause” is Aristotelean terminology for a purpose or end; or as Aristotle put it, “that for the sake of which a thing is done”. Mises goes on:
“inquiry and theorizing are entirely guided by the category of causality.”
Richard M. Ebeling is professor of economics at Northwood University. He is the former president of the Foundation for Economic Education and an adjunct scholar of the Mises Institute.
