Economic Science and the Austrian Method_3

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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
Economic Science and the Austrian Methodin the testimony of our senses . . . direct and easy proofofthat which we desire to know: In Political Econom~ accordingl~hypothesis is never used as a help toward the discoveryofultimate causes and laws."sThe views ofMises's predecessors, Menger, Bohm-Bawerk,and Wieser, are the same: The~ too, describe economicsas a discipline whose propositions can-in contrast to thoseof the natural sciences-be given some ultimate justification.Again, however, they do so without using the terminologyemployed by Mises. 9And finall~ Mises's epistemological characterization ofeconomics was also considered quite orthodox-and certainlynot idiosyncratic, as Blaug would have it-after havingbeen explicitly formulated by Mises. Lionel Robbins'sbook The Nature and Significance ofEconomic Science, whichfirst appeared in 1932, is nothing but a somewhat watereddownversion of Mises's description of economics aspraxeolo~ Yet itwas respected by the economics professionas the guiding methodological star for almost twenty years.In fact, Robbins, in his Preface, explicitly singles outMises as the most important source of his own methodologicalposition. And Mises and Richard von Strigl-whose8John E. Cairnes, The Character and Logical Method ofPolitical Economy (NewYork: Augustus Kelley, 1965), p. 83,87, 89-90,95-96.9See Carl Menger, Untersuchungen uber die Methoden der Sozialwissenschaften(Leipzig: 1883); idem, Die Irrtumer des Historismus in der Deutschen Nationalokonomie(Wien: 1884); Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk, Schriften, E X. Weiss, ed.(Vienna: 1924); Friedrich von Wieser, Theme der gesellschaftlichen Wirtschaft(Tiibingen: 1914); idem, Gesammelte Abhandlungen (Tiibingen: 1929). ForMises's evaluation ofhis predecessors, see his Epistemological Problems ofEconomics,pp. 17-22. The term "a priori" in connection with economic theorems is also usedby Frank H. Knight; his methodological writings, however, lack systematic rigor.See his "What Is Truth in Economics," in Knight, On the History and Method ofEconomics (Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1956); and his "The Limitationsof Scientific Method in Economics," in Knight, The Ethics ofCompetition (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1935).12 • The Ludwig von Mises Institute
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INDEXAlbert, H., 10Andreski, St., 5
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ABOUT THE AUTHORHans..Hermann Hoppe
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Economic Science and the Austrian Method_3

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