The Action-Axiom: Introduction

The action-axiom is the basis of all praxeology, and it is the basic proposition that all specimens of the species homo sapiens, the homo agens, purposefully utilize means over a period of time in order to achieved desired ends. In Human Action, Mises defined “action” in the sense of the action axiom by elucidating:

Human action is purposeful behavior. Or we may say: Action is will put into operation and transformed into an agency, is aiming at ends and goals, is the ego's meaningful response to stimuli and to the conditions of its environment, is a person's conscious adjustment to the state of the universe that determines his life. Such paraphrases may clarify the definition given and prevent possible misinterpretations. But the definition itself is adequate and does not need complement of commentary.

The action axiom, as an a priori fact, is true by definition, and any attempts to disprove it are actions that result it its validation.

This is my introduction to a series of blog posts that I shall be writing about the action-axiom as I myself attempt to magnify my own comprehension of it; therefore any input, or even critiques of what I write are appreciated . Among the topics that I will be writing about include the superiority of the Kantian understanding of the action-axiom to the Aristotelean, how it reinforces the fact that the laws of economics must be theorized antecedent to theorists looking at human society, and a criticism of the positivists critiques about it.