IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rsocec/v64y2006i2p247-265.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Was Mises right?

Author

Listed:
  • 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
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00346760600721163
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00346760600721163?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    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.
    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, pages 1-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mozo-Reyes, Eliana & Jambeck, Jenna R. & Reeves, Patricia & Johnsen, Kyle, 2016. "Will they recycle? Design and implementation of eco-feedback technology to promote on-the-go recycling in a university environment," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 72-79.
    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.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Don Lavoie & Virgil Storr, 2011. "Distinction or dichotomy: Rethinking the line between thymology and praxeology," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 213-233, June.
    2. 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.
    3. Anthony J. Evans & Vlad Tarko, 2014. "Contemporary Work in Austrian Economics," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 29(Fall 2014), pages 135-157.
    4. Eduardo Angeli, 2018. "Caminhos da Escola Austríaca: relação com ortodoxia, engajamento e produção de novo conhecimento [Paths of the Austrian School: its relationship with orthodoxy, engagement and production of new knowle," Nova Economia, Economics Department, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil), vol. 28(2), pages 681-704, May-Augus.
    5. Gilles Campagnolo, 2018. "From Karl Menger to Charles Menger? How Austrian economics (hardly) spread in France," Russian Journal of Economics, ARPHA Platform, vol. 4(1), pages 8-30, April.
    6. Gilles Campagnolo & Christel Vivel, 2020. "Kirzner and Rothbard on an Austrian theory of entrepreneurship: the heirs of both Menger and Mises discuss action and the role of institutions," Working Papers halshs-03107316, HAL.
    7. Paul Aligica & Anthony Evans, 2009. "Thought experiments, counterfactuals and comparative analysis," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 22(3), pages 225-239, September.
    8. 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..
    9. Mark Tomass, 2001. "Incommensurability of Economic Paradigms: A case study of the monetary theories of Mises and Marx," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 221-243.
    10. 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.
    11. Sandye Gloria-Palermo & Giulio Palermo, 2005. "Austrian economics and value judgments: a critical comparison with Neoclassical Economics," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 63-78.
    12. Bryan Caplan, 1999. "The Austrian Search for Realistic Foundations," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(4), pages 823-838, April.
    13. Anthony Evans, 2010. "Austrian economics behind the iron curtain: The rebirth of an intellectual tradition," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 23(3), pages 243-268, September.
    14. Leonid Krasnozhon & John Levendis, 2015. "Mises and prediction markets: Can markets forecast?," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 41-52, March.
    15. Peter J. Boettke & Rosolino A. Candela, 2017. "Rational choice as if the choosers were human," Chapters, in: Morris Altman (ed.), Handbook of Behavioural Economics and Smart Decision-Making, chapter 4, pages 68-85, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Loïc Sauce, 2017. "Market process(es) and (un)knowledge," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 30(3), pages 305-321, September.
    17. Calcagno, Peter T. & Hall, Joshua C. & Lawson, Robert A., 2010. "Objectivism versus subjectivism: A market test," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 445-448, November.
    18. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8529 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Georgy Egorov & Konstantin Sonin, 2011. "Dictators And Their Viziers: Endogenizing The Loyalty–Competence Trade‐Off," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(5), pages 903-930, October.
    20. Viktor J. Vanberg, 2023. "Liberalism and democracy: legitimacy and institutional expediency," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 195(3), pages 251-268, June.
    21. Shastitko, Andrey & Golovanova, Svetlana, 2016. "Meeting blindly… Is Austrian economics useful for dynamic capabilities theory?," Russian Journal of Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 86-110.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:64:y:2006:i:2:p:247-265. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RRSE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.