Economic Science and the Austrian Method_3

Hans-Hermann Hoppethese will be but the expression ofwhat every one will knO\\T,arranged in a form convenient for comprehending them, aswell as in their whole scope as in their relation to eachother." And "political economy ... whenever the principleswhich constitute its basis are the rigorous deductions ofundeniable general facts, rests upon an immovable foundation.,,6.According to Nassau Senior, economic "premises consistof a few general propositions, the result ofobservations, orconsciousness, and scarcely requiring proof, or even formalstatement, which almost every man, as soon as he hearsthem, admits as familiar to his thoughts, or at least asincluded in his previous knowledge; and his inferences arenearly as general, and, ifhe has reasoned correctl); as certainas his premises." And economists should be "aware that theScience depends more on reasoning than on observation,and that its principal difficulty consists not in the ascertainmentof its facts, but in the use of its terms.,,7And John E. Cairnes remarks that while "mankind hasno direct knowledge ofultimate physical principles" ... "theeconomist starts with a knowledge of ultimate causes." ..."The economist may thus be considered at the outset ofhisresearches as already in possession ofthose ultimate principIesgoverning the phenomena which form the subject ofhis study; the discovery of which in the case of physicalinvestigation constitutes for the inquirer his most arduoustask." "Conjecture [in economics] would manifestly be outof place, inasmuch as we possess in our consciousness and6Jean-Baptiste Say, Ireatise on Political Economy (New York: Augustus Kelley,[1880] 1964), p. xx, xxvi.7Nassau Senior, An Outline of the Science of Political Economy (New York:Augustus Kelley, [1836] 1965), pp. 2-3, 5.The Ludwig von Mises Institute • 11