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Was Mises right?

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  • Peter Leeson
  • Peter Boettke

Abstract

This paper argues that Mises's methodological position has been misunderstood by both friends and foes alike. On the one hand, Mises's critics wrongly characterize his position as rejecting empirical work. On the other hand, his defenders wrongly interpret his stance as rejecting empirical analyses on the grounds that they contradict apriorism and push economics towards historicism. We show that Mises's methodological position occupies a unique place that is at once both wholly aprioristic and radically empirical.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Leeson & Peter Boettke, 2006. "Was Mises right?," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 64(2), pages 247-265.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:64:y:2006:i:2:p:247-265
    DOI: 10.1080/00346760600721163
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Cowen, Tyler & Fink, Richard, 1985. "Inconsistent Equilibrium Constructs: The Evenly Rotating Economy of Mises and Rothbard," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(4), pages 866-869, September.
    2. Boettke, Peter J., 1995. "Why are There No Austrian Socialists? Ideology, Science and the Austrian School," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(1), pages 35-56, April.
    3. von Mises, Ludwig, 1957. "Theory and History," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, edition 1, number mises1957.
    4. Bruce J. Caldwell, 1984. "Praxeology and its Critics: an Appraisal," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 16(3), pages 363-379, Fall.
    5. Vaughn,Karen I., 1994. "Austrian Economics in America," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521445528, January.
    6. Robert H. Bates & Avner Greif & Margaret Levi & Jean-Laurent, 1998. "Analytic Narratives," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 6355.
    7. Frank H. Knight, 1940. ""What is Truth" in Economics?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(1), pages 1-1.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Miroslav Svoboda, 2014. "Fenomenologie jako základ ekonomické metody [Phenomenology as a Foundation of Economic Method]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2014(3), pages 400-417.
    3. Alexander W. Salter & Abigail R. Hall, 2015. "Calculating Bandits: Quasi-Corporate Governance and Institutional Selection in Autocracies," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: New Thinking in Austrian Political Economy, volume 19, pages 193-213, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    4. Jayme Lemke & John Kroencke, 2020. "Methodological confusions and the science wars in economics," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 87-106, March.
    5. Zanotti, Gabriel J. & Cachanosky, Nicolás, 2015. "Implications Of Machlup’S Interpretation Of Mises’S Epistemology," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 111-138, March.
    6. William Luther, 2014. "Evenly rotating economy: A new modeling technique for an old equilibrium construct," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 27(4), pages 403-417, December.
    7. Paul Lewis, 2010. "Certainly not! A critical realist recasting of Ludwig von Mises's methodology of the social sciences," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 277-299.
    8. Di Iorio Francesco & Di Nuoscio Enzo, 2014. "Rethinking Boudon’s Cognitive Rationality in the Light of Mises’ Apriorism and Gadamer’s Hermeneutics," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 20(2), pages 129-142, December.
    9. Hartmut Kliemt, 2017. "ABC – Austria, Bloomington, Chicago: Political Economy the Ostrom Way," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: The Austrian and Bloomington Schools of Political Economy, volume 22, pages 1-33, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    10. Scott Scheall, 2017. "What is extreme about Mises’s extreme apriorism?," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 226-249, July.
    11. Kyle W. O’Donnell, 2015. "The cultural and political economy of drug prohibition," Chapters, in: Laura E. Grube & Virgil Henry Storr (ed.), Culture and Economic Action, chapter 19, pages 418-435, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Peter Boettke & Rosolino Candela, 2017. "Comparative Historical Political Economy and the Bourgeois Era," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 32(Winter 20), pages 13-29.

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