George A. Selgin

The law of sufficient reason states the minimum amount of connection and order in the world which is necessary if we are to have a chance to understand and control it…. Thus [the law asserts] there is not unlimited possibility present in our world…. Whatever occurs, a battle, a change in the government or in the economic system, or the like, it is not true that everything or anything else could have happened…

Praxeological theories, as understood by Mises, are independent of the particular psychological makeup of individuals. Praxeology does not address the content of individual preferences or the particular motives that give rise to those preferences. It is concerned with the pure logic of choice.

Central to the current controversy in Austrian economics is the debate concerning whether or not the market harbors a tendency toward equilibrium. The skeptical position, represented by Lachmann, is that no such tendency exists. It is opposed in particular by Kirzner, who attempts to defend the more traditional, praxeological position.

Exponents of the doctrine of the kaleidic society have suggested that the praxeological method presupposes a thesis of historical determinism. They believe that in implicitly rejecting their view, praxeology assumes a rigid link between the patterns of people’s actions in the present and their patterns in the future. Such an assumption contradicts the Austrian notion of purposefulness and involves as well a tacit denial of free will.

Blanshard, Brand. Reason and Analysis. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1973.

Bowley, Marian. Nassau Senior and Classical Economics. New York: Octagon Books, 1967.

Cohen, Morris R. The Meaning of Human History. 2nd ed. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1961.

———. Reason and Nature: An Essay on the Meaning of Scientific Method. New York: Dover, 1978.

Egger, John B. “The Austrian Method.” In New Directions in Austrian Economics. Edited by Louis M. Spadaro. Kansas City, Kans.: Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1978, pp. 19-39.

About the author …

George A. Selgin is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Georgia. He received his Ph.D. from New York University in 1986 and was lecturer in economics for a year at the University of Hong Kong. His first book, The Theory of Free Banking: Money Supply Under Competitive Note Issue was published in 1988 by Rowman and Littlefield.

Founded in October 1982, the Ludwig von Mises Institute is a unique educational organization dedicated to the work of Ludwig von Mises and the advancement of Austrian economics. The Institute’s board is chaired by Mrs. Ludwig von Mises. The founder and president is Llewellyn H. Rockwell. Professor Murray N. Rothbard, Professor Mises’s top American student, is vice president for academic affairs.

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