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ECONOMIC SCIENCE
AND THE
AUSTRIAN METHOD

HANS-HERMANN HOPPE

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Copyright © 1995 and 2007 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute

Ludwig von Mises Institute, 518 West Magnolia Avenue, Auburn,
Ala. 36832; www.mises.org

ISBN 10 digit: 1-933550-11-2
ISBN 13 digit: 978-0-945466-20-8

PREFACE

It was a tragic day when economics, the queen of the social sciences, adopted the methods associated with the natural sciences: empiricism and positivism. In the sweep of economic thought, this change occurred—not coincidentally—about the same time that intellectuals and politicians came to believe in the efficacy of government planning. Despite their failures, both doctrines remain godless faiths of our age.

PRAXEOLOGY AND ECONOMIC SCIENCE

It is well-known that Austrians disagree strongly with other schools of economic thought, such as the Keynesians, the Monetarists, the Public Choicers, Historicists, Institutionalists, and Marxists.1 Disagreement is most conspicuous, of course, when it comes to economic policy and economic policy proposals. At times there also exists an alliance between Austrians and, in particular, Chicagoites and Public Choicers. Ludwig von Mises, Murray N.

ON PRAXEOLOGY AND THE PRAXEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION OF EPISTEMOLOGY

I

As have most great and innovative economists, Ludwig von Mises intensively and repeatedly analyzed the problem of the logical status of economic propositions, i.e., how we come to know them and how we validate them. Indeed, Mises ranks foremost among those who hold that such a concern is indispensable in order to achieve systematic progress in economics.

Recommended Readings

Block, Walter. “On Robert Nozick’s ‘On Austrian Methodology’.” Inquiry 23 (1980).

Hollis, Martin, and Edward Nell. Rational Economic Man: A Philosophical Critique of Neo-Classical Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975.

Hoppe, Hans-Hermann. Kritik der kausalwissenschaftlichen Sozialforschung. Unterschungen zur Grundlegung von Soziologie und Ökonomie. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1983.

—. “Is Research Based on Causal Scientific Principles Possible in the Social Sciences?” Ratio 25, no. 1 (1983).