The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science

Contents

contents Preface to the Second Edition xi Some Preliminary Observations Concerning Praxeology Instead of an Introduction 1 1 The Permanent Substratum of Epistemology 1 2 On Action 2 3 On Economics 3 4 The Starting Point of Praxeological Thinking 4 5 The Reality of the External World 5 6 Causality and Teleology 6 7 The Category of Action 7 8 The Sciences of Human Action 7 chapter 1 The Human Mind 9 1 The Logical Structure of the Human Mind 9 2 A Hypothesis about the Origin of the A Priori Categories 12 3 The A Priori 15 4 The A Priori Representation of Reality 16 5 Induction 18 6 The Paradox of Probability Empiricism 23 7 Materialism 25 8 The Absurdity of Any Materialistic Philosophy 26 chapter 2 The Activistic Basis of Knowledge 30 1 Man and Action 30 2 Finality 31 3 Valuation 33 4 The Chimera of Unified Science 34 viii  contents 5 The Two Branches of the Sciences of Human Action 36 6 The Logical Character of Praxeology 39 7 The Logical Character of History 40 8 The Thymological Method 41 chapter 3 Necessity and Volition 47 1 The Infinite 47 2 The Ultimate Given 48 3 Statistics 49 4 Free Will 51 5 Inevitability 54 chapter 4 Certainty and Uncertainty 56 1 The Problem of Quantitative Definiteness 56 2 Certain Knowledge 57 3 The Uncertainty of the Future 58 4 Quantification and Understanding in Acting and in History 59 5 The Precariousness of Forecasting in Human Affairs 60 6 Economic Prediction and the Trend Doctrine 61 7 Decision-Making 62 8 Confirmation and Refutability 62 9 The Examination of Praxeological Theorems 64 chapter 5 On Some Popular Errors Concerning the Scope and Method of Economics 66 1 The Research Fable 66 2 The Study of Motives 67 3 Theory and Practice 69 4 The Pitfalls of Hypostatization 70 5 On the Rejection of Methodological Individualism 72 6 The Approach of Macroeconomics 74 7 Reality and Play 78 8 Misinterpretation of the Climate of Opinion 81 9 The Belief in the Omnipotence of Thought 82 10 The Concept of a Perfect System of Government 85 11 The Behavioral Sciences 91 contents  ix chapter 6 Further Implications of the Neglect of Economic Thinking 94 1 The Zoological Approach to Human Problems 94 2 The Approach of the “Social Sciences” 95 3 The Approach of Economics 98 4 A Remark about Legal Terminology 99 5 The Sovereignty of the Consumers 101 chapter 7 The Epistemological Roots of Monism 104 1 The Nonexperimental Character of Monism 104 2 The Historical Setting of Positivism 106 3 The Case of the Natural Sciences 108 4 The Case of the Sciences of Human Action 109 5 The Fallacies of Positivism 110 chapter 8 Positivism and the Crisis of Western Civilization 113 1 The Misinterpretation of the Universe 113 2 The Misinterpretation of the Human Condition 114 3 The Cult of Science 116 4 The Epistemological Support of Totalitarianism 117 5 The Consequences 120 Index 121 ...