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Critical Realism is a philosophical movement that has been gaining some ground in the past few years. It is an approach to philosophy that encompasses epistemology, ontology, and to some extent, morality. It approaches the world as being made up of “structures,” each with certains “powers.” These structures (think gravity) are
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Anyone who thinks the Austrians are not influential really needs to do his homework on the subject. Penrose, Lawson, and Lewin have all been influential in their fields and were heavily influenced by Austrian ideas. Tullock and Buchanan have both said that Hayek greatly influenced them. Even some Marxists have become Austrians, such as Burczak. Just
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Aristotle, upon whom Menger based some of his ideas, believed in the concept of akrasia. Akratic action is action that is known to be against an agent's own interests, but is pursued regardless. This is obviously incompatible with any rational choice-based theory of action, since the agent is purposely acting irrationally. An example is the drunk
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There are at least three distinct, but overlapping, research programmes (to use Lakatos' term) in Austrian economics, at least according to Rothbard. Each of these styles of thought can rightfully claim to be based on Mengerian insight. There is the Mises-Rothbard strand, which emphasizes rationality, equilibrium as a mental construct, and theorizing
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How should we decide whether a school of economic thought is heterodox or mainstream? The line is not always very clear. We can safely say that economics in the style of Paul Samuelson, the neoclassical synthesis, is mainstream, but that is an easy case. One way to draw the line is to look at other areas of study that the school resembles. Does it resemble
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I believe that any kind of interventionism is incompatible with subjectivism. For example, suppose that a cluster of entrepreneurial errors occur in the economy, possibly as a result of the ABCT. The capital structure has become inconsistent with the demands of the consumers and relative prices are out of balance. What could an interventionist Austrian
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Part of my goal in this blog will be showing how Lachmann can be read in a Misesian light. Although the early Lachmann is much more explicitly Misesian, the later Lachmann can be read this way as well, to some extent. The later Lachmann can be seen as practicing the historical side of Mises' Theory and History. Even his kaleidic society can be taken
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During the current financial crisis and subsequent government actions, the institutions that provide a framework for our society have been significantly altered. The damage to financial institutions, which are internal institutions that allow people to allocate their financial assets and hedge risk, has created a greater degree of uncertainty in the
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I'm currently listening to David Harvey's graduate course on Das Kapital. The whole conceptual framework of the book makes no sense. Marx admits multiple "exceptions" to the labor theory of value, yet still keeps it. He even cites a case where a commodity can have a price, but no value. What kind of value theory is that? The methodology
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We can see how the concept of the plan can be used to create a theory of institutions that takes into account the complexities of the social world. These institutions help to generate coordination in society and reduce the uncertainty caused by the subjective character of human expectations. That is, they allow us to use common knowledge to coordinate