[ An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (1995)] A particularly outstanding feature of J.B. Say’s treatise is that he was the first economist to think deeply about the proper methodology of his discipline, and to base his work, as far as he could, upon that methodology. From previous economists and from his own study, he
[Day 13 of Robert Wenzel’s 30-day reading list that will lead you to become a knowledgeable libertarian, this article is excerpted from The Logic of Action One: Method, Money, and the Austrian School (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1997), pp. 58–77. It appeared on LewRockwell.com Praxeology is the distinctive methodology of the Austrian School. The
[This article is chapter 4 from Economic Controversies (2011). It originally appeared in The Foundations of Modern Austrian Economics (1976).] Praxeology is the distinctive methodology of the Austrian School. The term was first applied to the Austrian method by Ludwig von Mises, who was not only the major architect and elaborator of this
[ Man, Economy, and State, with Power and Market ] The analysis in chapter 1 was based on the logical implications of the assumption of action, and its results hold true for all human action. The application of these principles was confined, however, to “Crusoe economics,” where the actions of isolated individuals are considered by themselves.
The primary social evil of our time is lack of respect for self-ownership rights. It is what underlies both private crime and institutionalized crime perpetrated by the state. State laws, regulations, and actions are objectionable just because the state is claiming the right to control how someone’s body is to be used. When the state drafts a man
My first exposure to formal economics came during my undergraduate degree at Washington University. I was working on an engineering degree and they required that we take some basic economics. So in 1990–1 I took Econ 103/104, introductory micro and macro economics. I found it boring, irrelevant and uninspiring. If you had told me then that I’d be
Dear economics department chairman, In all the formal economic study I have sat through, I have developed a growing concern for the direction of the economics profession in general, and economic education in particular. Let me explain — and challenge you. What is knowledge? How is knowledge acquired? What do we know? How do we know what we know?
The close followers of the work of Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973), one of the leading thinkers of the Austrian School of Economics, maintain that economics is an a priori science, “a science whose propositions can be given a rigorous logical justification, which distinguishes Austrians, or more precisely Misesians, from all other current economic
The law of diminishing marginal utility is at the heart of the explanation of numerous economic phenomena, including time preference and the value of goods; and it also plays a crucial role in showing that socialism is economically and ethically inferior to capitalism. The law of diminishing marginal utility, as developed by Carl Menger
I. How do we know about the outer world — or reality, for that matter? Where does our knowledge about it come from? The attempt to answer these questions leads to epistemology , the branch of philosophy dealing with the origin, scope, and validity of human knowledge. In the epistemological debate, there are two archetypal and actually
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.