Critical comments on the philosophical context of Ludwig von Mises’s ‘Human action’

Abstract

Mises’s work of ‘Human action’ is analyzed in relation to the methodological conceptions of his predecessor C. Menger and of his successor F. von Hayek. Also, it is placed in the continuation of one of his previous works and in contrast to one that followed it. Some of his ideas can be better understood in such a way, while others show themselves as contradictory. It results that his attempt to combine apriorism with scientific realism explains some of major difficulties of Mises’s argumentation.

Keywords

• philosophy of economics
• Austrian School
• apriorism
• realism
• historism
• neopositivism