Index

A

Affluent Society, The, 236

Against Intellectual Monopoly

case against patents, 208–10

explode the myth, 182, 195

general equilibrium, 204

intellectual property is a cancer, 215

mind-blowing experience, 178

property, 200

Schumpeter, Joseph, 204

think carefully, 187

unadulterated fantasy, 188

AIG, 250

AN INTERPRETATION OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EVOLUTION

LUDWIG VON MISES

PREFACE BY MURRAY N. ROTHBARD

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 © 1957 by Yale University Press
Reprinted in 1969 by Arlington House
Copyright © 1985 by Margit von Mises
Reprint in 2007 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute

Ludwig von Mises Institute, 518 West Magnolia Avenue,
Auburn, Alabama 36832 U.S.A.; www.mises.org

ISBN: 978-1-933550-19-0

LUDWIG von Mises published many books and articles in his long and productive life, each of them making important contributions to the theory and application of economic science. But there stands out among them four towering masterpieces, immortal monuments to the work of the greatest economist and scientist of human action of our century.

1. Methodological Dualism

MORTAL MAN does not know how the universe and all that it contains may appear to a superhuman intelligence. Perhaps such an exalted mind is in a position to elaborate a coherent and comprehensive monistic interpretation of all phenomena. Man—up to now, at least —has always gone lamentably amiss in his attempts to bridge the gulf that he sees yawning between mind and matter, between the rider and the horse, between the mason and the stone.

1. Judgments of Value and Propositions of Existence

PROPOSITIONS asserting existence (affirmative existential propositions) or nonexistence (negative existential propositions) are descriptive. They assert something about the state of the whole universe or of parts of the universe. With regard to them questions of truth and falsity are significant. They must not be confounded with judgments of value.

1. The Bias Doctrine

THE ACCUSATION of bias has been leveled against economists long before Marx integrated it into his doctrines. Today it is fairly generally endorsed by writers and politicians who, although they are in many respects influenced by Marxian ideas, cannot simply be considered Marxians. We must attach to their reproach a meaning that differs from that which it has in the context of dialectical materialism. We must therefore distinguish two varieties of the bias doctrine: the Marxian and the non-Marxian.