num_pages: 341
description: The characteristic feature of this age of destructive wars and social disintegration is the revolt against economics. So says Ludwig von Mises in his most thorough defense of the method and scope of economic science. In this treatise he argues that the core intellectual errors of statism socialism protectionism racism irrationalism can be found in a revolt against economic logic and its special character. Epistemological Problems of Economics was original published in 1933 a period when the social sciences and economic policy were undergoing upheaval. The classical view of economics as a deductive science along with the laissez-faire policies implied by that view were being displaced by positivism and economic planning. Mises set out to put the classical view on a firmer foundation. In so doing he examines a range of philosophical problems associated with economics. He goes further to delineate the scope of the general science of human action. This treatise out of print for many years is now brought back by the Mises Institute in a 3rd edition with a comprehensive introduction by Jrg Guido Hlsmann senior fellow of the Mises Institute. He observes that the great majority of contemporary economists sociologists political scientists and philosophers are either completely unaware of Mises's contributions to the epistemology of the social sciences or think they can safely neglect dealing with them. They are in error. One can ignore a thinker but the fundamental problems of social analysis remain. There will be no progress in these disciplines before the mainstream has fully absorbed and digested Mises's ideas.
language: None
title: Epistemological Problems of Economics
publisher: Ludwig Von Mises Inst