Economic Science and the Austrian Method_3

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Hans-Hermann HoppeWhat does this first step in our criticism of empiricismprove? It proves evidently that the empiricist idea of knowledgeis wrong, and it proves this by means of a meaningful apriori argument. And in doing this, it shows that the Kantianand Misesian idea of true a priori synthetic propositions iscorrect. More specifically; it proves that the relationshipbetween theory and history cannot be as depicted byempiricism. There must also be a realm oftheory-theorythat is empirically meaningful-which is categorically differentfrom the only idea of theory empiricism admits tohaving existence. There must also be a priori theories, and therelationship between theory and history then must be differentand more complicated than empiricism would have usbelieve. How different indeed will become apparentwhen I present another argument against empiricism,another a priori argument, and an a priori argument againstthe thesis implied in empiricism that the relation betweentheory and empirical research is the same in every field ofknowledge.However appropriate the empiricist ideas may be indealing with the natural sciences (and I think they areinappropriate even there, but I cannot go into this here),25it is impossible to think that the methods ofempiricism canbe applicable in the social sciences.Actions are the field of phenomena which constituteswhat we regard as the subject matter of the social sciences.Empiricism claims that actions can and must be250n this see, in addition to the works cited in note 23, in particular H.Dingler, Die Ergreifung des Wirklichen (Munich: 1955); idem, Aujbau der exaktenFundamentalwissenschaft (MUnich: 1964; Paul Lorenzen, Methodisches Denken(Frankfurt/M.: 1968); E Kambartel and J. Mittelstrass, eds., Zum normativenFundament der Wissenschaft (Frankfurt/M.: 1973); also my "In Defense ofExtremeRationalism." ,The Ludwig von Mises Institute • 35
Economic Science and the Austrian Methodexplained, just as any other phenomenon, by means ofcausalhypotheses which can be confirmed or falsified byexperience.26Now ifthis were the case, then empiricism would be firstforced to assume-contrary to its own doctrine that no apriori knowledge about anything real exists-that time-invariantlyoperating causes with respect to actions exist.One would not know a priori which particular eventmight be the cause ofany particular action. But empiricismwants us to relate different experiences regarding sequencesof events as either confirming or falsifying each other. Andif they falsify each other, then we are to respond with areformulation of the original hypothesis. Yet in order to doso, we must assume a constancy over time in the operationof causes as such-and to know that causes for actions doexist is, of course, knowledge about the reality of actions.Without such an assumption regarding the existence ofcauses as such, different experiences can never be related toeach other as confirming or falsifying one another. They aresimply unrelated, incommensurable observations. Here isone, there is another; they are the same or similar; or theyare different. Nothing else follows. 27In addition, there is yet another contradiction, andmaking it evident will immediately lead us to Mises's central261n addition to the literature cited in note 20 see, for instance, suchtypical empiricist products as Arthur Goldberger and Otis D. Duncan, eds.,Structural Equation Models in the Social Sciences (San Diego, Calif.: AcademicPress, 1973); H. B. Blalock, ed., Causal Inferences in Non-Experimental Research(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1964); Arthur L. Stinchcombe,Constructing Social Theories (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World,1968).27On this and the following, see Hoppe, Kritik der kausalwissenschaftlichenSozialforschung, chapter 2, and "Is Research Based on Causal Scientific PrinciplesPossible in the Social Sciences?"36 • 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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