Economic Science and the Austrian Method_3

Hans-Hernt-ann Hoppein particular since Einstein's relativistic theory of gravitation,the prevailing position regarding geometry is onceagain empiricist and formalist. It conceives of geometry aseither being part of empirical, aposteriori physics, or asbeing empirically meaningless formalisms. Yet thatgeometryis either mere pIa)', or forever subject to empirical testingseems to be irreconcilable with the fact that Euclideangeometry is the foundation of engineering and construction,and that nobody there ever thinks ofsuch propositionsas only hypothetically true. 61 Recognizing knowledge aspraxeologically constrained explains why the empiricist-formalistview is incorrect and why the empirical success ofEuclidean geometry is no mere accident. Spatial knowledgeis also included in the meaning of action. Action is theemployment of a physical body in space. Without actingthere could be no knowledge of spatial relations, and nomeasurement. Measuring is relating something to a standard.Without standards, there is no measurement; and thereis no measurement, then, which could ever falsify the standard.Evidentl)', the ultimate standard must be provided bythe norms underlying the construction ofbodily movementsin space and the construction of measurement instrumentsby means of one's body and in accordance with the principlesof spatial constructions embodied in it. Euclidean geometr)',as again Paul Lorenzen in particular has explained,is no more and no less than the reconstruction of the idealnorms underlying our construction of such homogeneousbasic forms as points, lines, planes and distances, which arein a more or less perfect but always perfectible way incorporatedor realized in even our most primitive instrumentsofspatial measurements such as a measuring rod. Naturall)',61SeeonthisalsoMises, The Ultimate Foundation ofEconomic Science) pp.12-14.The Ludwig von Mises Institute • 75