Still Have Love for the Mises -- It's the PJB

I never met Ludwig von Mises, though I did correspond with his widow once to express my deep appreciation for the work of her husband.  Ludwig von Mises is the single most important thinker in my life.  I've written a lot on Hayek, read almost everything ever written by Hayek or about him.   But it is Mises who inspires me and directs my research questions --- even when they are about Hayek or other thinkers in and out of the Austrian school of economics.  In short, Mises sets the standard against which I try to make sense of contributions in economics --- either ancient or modern.  Though I doubt whether most people associated with the Austrian school would recognize this in my work, or acknowledge it even if they did.  This has always put me in a rather weird position in the contemporary Austrian school --- neither recognized as a Misesian nor a Hayekian nor a Lachmannian, yet clearly an Austrian.  It is a weird position, but one that I gladly occupy with Israel Kirzner --- a man who has devoted his intellectual career to pursuing the Misesian research program in economics only to be labeled by many modern day "Misesians" as a "Hayekian".  I don't quite run into that problem, instead I have been labeled eclectic and self-indulgent.  Perhaps so, but  I do think it should be hard to deny my "love for the Mises".

Each spring I teach my graduate seminar in Austrian Theory of the Market Process II. The core books for the class are: Mises, Human Action; Hayek, Individualism and Economic Order; Kirzner, Competition and Entrepreneurship; and Rothbard, Man, Economy and State. Sections of readings from these books are required, and then other readings from the economics literature are suggested as supplements.  And it is my opinion that all of the work is derivative of Mises's work, including Hayek's outstanding contributions.  A close reading of Mises reveals that on matters of substantive economics he got there first.  Of course, Hayek already pointed this out to careful readers in a footnote in The Counter-Revolution of Science.

To give one example of how Mises's work is still relevant to the contemporary debates consider the discussion surrounding modern economic growth and development and the emergence of civilization.  Works by diverse scholars such as Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel, and Collapse; David Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations; Kwame Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers; Paul Seabrights, The Company of Strangers; and Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy.  The various hypotheses and propositions put forth in these works were addressed by Mises in his discussion of contractual bonds and hegemonic bonds (pp. 195-198); his critique of the fable of mystic communion (pp. 166-169); and his discussion of social cooperation and Ricardo's Law of Association in general (pp. 143-176).  Not only does Mises get there well before these modern authors, but his analysis is far superior because Mises's critique of socialism and its implications for modern political economy is still not fully recognized (pp. 689-715).

So as I dig into this material for presentation in my class again this spring, I am struck again at how foundational the work of Mises is to our ongoing project to understanding peace and prosperity.  Of course other writers --- namely Smith, Hume, Friedman, Hayek and Buchanan all are economic voices that made fundamental contributions to human understanding.  But I honestly believe that modern readers --- if they don't let Mises's language derail their reading by recognizing his unique intellectual struggle in his lifetime and thus contextualize the way he expressed himself and his ideas --- will benefit greatly from his towering achievement.

Comments

[Lawrence H. White]

And "the PJB" is short for ...?

[Rafe]

Mises could see the danger of modern positivism coming in the 1920s when it was a very small cloud on the horizon. Picking up the philosophy theme where I left it with some eclectic and self-indulgent comments, one of the biggest problems for the Austrians to achieve credibility is the way that the philosophy of science was gutted by positivism (logical empiricism in the US). Consequently a very interesting paper could be written along the lines "Philosophy versus economics".

Incidentally and amazingly, our local suburban library had copies of Human Action and Mises beautiful little memoire. When I recently went back to borrow the memoire again it had been culled to make room for new stock. Only a handful of Mises books are in the library at the Uni of Sydney.

[Jason Briggeman]

Pete's representing for Misesians across the world.

[Steve Miller]

L. White wrote: "And the 'PJB' is short for...?"

I have no idea what it might stand for, other than Peter J. Boettke and Pre-James Buchanan.

;-)

[James Fletcher Baxter]

"Man is a being capable of subduing his emotions and
impulses; he can rationalize his behavior. He arranges
his wishes into a scale, he chooses; in short, he acts.
What distinguishes man from beasts is precisely that he
adjusts his behavior deliberately." Ludwig von Mises

"To make any sense of the idea of morality, it must be
presumed that the human being is responsible for his
actions and responsibility cannot be understood apart
from the presumption of freedom of choice."
John Chamberlain

"The advocate of liberty believes that it is complementary
of the orderly laws of cause and effect, of probability
and of chance, of which man is not completely informed.
It is complementary of them because it rests in part upon
the faith that each individual is endowed by his Creator
with the power of individual choice."
Wendell J. Brown

"These examples demonstrate a basic truth -- that human
dignity is embodied in the free choice of individuals."
Condoleeza Rice

"Our Founding Fathers believed that we live in an ordered
universe. They believed themselves to be a part of the
universal order of things. Stated another way, they
believed in God. They believed that every man must find
his own place in a world where a place has been made for
him. They sought independence for their nation but, more
importantly, they sought freedom for individuals to think
and act for themselves. They established a republic
dedicated to one purpose above all others - the preserva-
tion of individual liberty..." Ralph W. Husted

"We have the gift of an inner liberty so far-reaching
that we can choose either to accept or reject the God
who gave it to us, and it would seem to follow that the
Author of a liberty so radical wills that we should be
equally free in our relationships with other men.
Spiritual liberty logically demands conditions of outer
and social freedom for its completion." Edmund A. Opitz

"Above all I see an ability to choose the better from the
worse that has made possible life's progress."
Charles Lindbergh

"Freedom is the Right to Choose, the Right to create for
oneself the alternatives of Choice. Without the possibil-
ity of Choice, and the exercise of Choice, a man is not
a man but a member, an instrument, a thing."
Thomas Jefferson

- from The HUMAN PARADIGM