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Economics as a life-science: The enduring significance of Carl Menger’s individualist-evolutionary research program

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  • Viktor J. Vanberg

    (Walter Eucken Institut)

Abstract

Historians of economic thought commonly emphasize three aspects of Carl Menger’s work: his quarrel with the German Historical School, the contrast between his theoretical outlook and that of his co-marginalists, Léon Walras and William Stanley Jevons, and his role in pioneering an evolutionary economics. The paper argues that these aspects of Menger’s work have their common root in his understanding of economics as – in modern language – a life science.

Suggested Citation

  • Viktor J. Vanberg, 2023. "Economics as a life-science: The enduring significance of Carl Menger’s individualist-evolutionary research program," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 145-162, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:36:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s11138-022-00604-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11138-022-00604-w
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hayek, F. A., 2010. "Studies on the Abuse and Decline of Reason," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226321127 edited by Caldwell, Bruce, Febrero.
    2. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, 1979. "Methods in Economic Science," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 317-328, June.
    3. Nils Goldschmidt & Erik Grimmer-Solem & Joachim Zweynert, 2016. "On the Purpose and Aims of the Journal of Contextual Economics," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 136(1), pages 1-14.
    4. Vanberg, Viktor J., 2004. "Austrian Economics, Evolutionary Psychology and Methodological Dualism: Subjectivism Reconsidered," Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 04/3, Walter Eucken Institut e.V..
    5. Hayek, F. A., 2010. "Studies on the Abuse and Decline of Reason," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226321097 edited by Caldwell, Bruce, December.
    6. Thomas Michael Mueller, 2017. "Can you put free will into an equation? The debate on determinism and mathematics at the end of the nineteenth century," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 441-464, May.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Life-science; Historical School; Marginalist revolution; Evolutionism; Subjectivism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B10 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - General
    • B15 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary
    • B25 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Austrian; Stockholm School
    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • B53 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Austrian

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