Abstract
Given the breadth of the ideas of the Austrian School of Economics and the numerous lengthy treatises across which those ideas are scattered, it is difficult to recommend an introductory text that conveys its definingcharacteristics. However, in this regard, Murray N. Rothbard’s rarely discussed Preface to Ludwig von Mises’s book Theory and History possesses considerable untapped potential. The Preface’s merits as an introductory reading stem not only from its persuasive summary of the praxeological method and the core arguments in its favor, amongst other distinguishing characteristics of the Austrian School, but also from its brevity and Rothbard’s stilistic clarity, which make it incredibly accessible to newcomers to Austrian ideas.
Highlights
Any school of thought that wishes to spread its ideas to new readers and new generations must grapple with the tricky question of which introductory readings recommend to interested newcomers and upon which criteria to make this decision
The Austrian School is characterized by several important qualities which have distinguished it from the mainstream of economic thought at various points throughout its history: its subjectivist ordinal theory of value (MENGER, 2007 [1871], p. 114-174); its emphasis on methodological individualism (MISES, 1998 [1949], p. 41-44); its writings on money, central banking, and the business cycle (MISES, 2009 [1912]; HAYEK 1933 [1929]); and the pro-market orientation of most of its exponents (MCCAFFREY, 2016)
Austrian economists do not deny that empirical data often plays a role in informing the actions of economic agents in the real world, making it a suitable subject for analysis by economic theory: for example, the influence on the purchasing power of money by consumers’ and entrepreneurs’ reactions to the array of price data from the recent past (PICKERING, 2019, p. 605). These two arguments presented by Rothbard — that human beings are to some extent self-directed and can change their values and courses of action, making each particular historical case of human action radically heterogeneous, incommensurable, and impossible to repeat in laboratory conditions; and that economics has a fundamentally different ‘direction’ of scientific investigation than the natural sciences — combine to strongly make the case that applying the empirical-inductive method of the natural sciences to economics is unnecessary and fruitless, but, on a fundamental level, does not even make sense
Summary
Any school of thought that wishes to spread its ideas to new readers and new generations must grapple with the tricky question of which introductory readings recommend to interested newcomers and upon which criteria to make this decision. The Austrian School has produced several works in favor of the praxeological method, many of which could be recommended as introductions to the topic, depending on the number of pages and the density of language that the individual reader is willing to bear These potential introductions to praxeology range from whole books (MISES, 2007 [1957]), to. Writing the Preface for Mises’s great methodological work allowed Rothbard to set down his perspective on the importance of the praxeological method and the key arguments in its favor, in perhaps the most succinct presentation of his career. The fact that a significant Austrian thinker such as Rothbard was able to present the case for the praxeological method in such a compelling and accessible manner, in a space scarcely longer than the average newspaper editorial, sets this Preface apart as a potential introductory reading to newcomers to Austrian ideas
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