If Austrian economics is based on deductive logic, has anyone ever attempted to write out the chain of assumptions and propositions without all the extra explanatory material in e.g. Mises or Rothbard? Shouldn't you be able to write out a numbered step-by-step verbal proof of any proposition? If not, why not?
I'd recommend signing up for a college-level course in it. It's not something you can teach yourself easily. David Kelley's The Art of Reasoning is good though.
Freedom of markets is positively correlated with the degree of evolution in any society...
It is interesting you brought up van den Hauwe doing this formalization. I said the same thing he argued in this discussion. See especially the latter pages.
I mentioned him because he's one of the few people I know of interested in doing it, regardless of his epistemological predilections.
Jon Irenicus: I'd recommend signing up for a college-level course in it. It's not something you can teach yourself easily. David Kelley's The Art of Reasoning is good though.
That's funny. I saw a John Stossel documentary last night with David Kelley in it. He's an objectivist (not that there's anything wrong that).
To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process. Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!" Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."
He's an Objectivist but in a qualified sense, namely because he departs from the Peikovian orthodoxy on whether Objectivism is a closed system (he maintains it isn't and is amenable to development.) He's a very good philosopher, far better than Peikoff IMO. If you do decide to sign up on a logic course, just ask beforehand whether the book is suitable for use with it; some courses use different systems/symbology, and thus it may not be useful in those cases (in which case I'd retain it for private study.)
Daniel: What book would you recommend to learn formal logic?
What book would you recommend to learn formal logic?
I just started reading Morris Cohen's "An Introduction to Logic", and have found it quite good so far.
"When the King is far the people are happy." Chinese proverb
For Alexander Zinoviev and the free market there is a shared delight:
"Where there are problems there is life."
Jon,
You should read his book on the welfare state's rise. It's quite a good read both from a historical and analytical perspective.
"The power of liberty going forward is in decentralization. Not in leaders, but in decentralized activism. In a market process." -- liberty student