Two foundations for praxiology:
Kant and Wittgenstein
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30800/mises.2020.v8.1219Keywords:
Ludwig von Mises, praxiology, methodology, apriorism, Kant, WittgensteinAbstract
Ludwig von Mises defended the controversial thesis that the economy is governed by a priori principles, against the positivist analysis of science (including economics). I intend, in this essay, to present a defense of Mises’s thesis. I begin by analyzing the influence of Kantian epistemology on Mises’s project and the improvements that Mises bequeathed to it. Given the objections to the Kantian position, on the basis of a Wittgensteinian critique of psychologism, I argue, based on a recent analysis by Roderick T. Long, that Mises’s project may actually be seen as an elaboration of Wittgenstein’s: the arguments for the conclusion that everything that counts as thought involves logical principles can be extended to show that everything that counts as action involves economic principles, an argument that would summarize Mises’s praxeology.
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