Mises, Ludwig von. Human Action: A Treatise on Economics
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
xxii
Human
Action
Revised editions preserve that passage with only minor alterations,
but add seven wholly new paragraphs preceding it. These new
paragraphs in the revised editions introduce a different focus on the
necessary and specific powers of government, which appear rather
expansive by Misesian standards: "The maintenance of
a
govern-
ment apparatus of courts, police officers, prison, and of armed
forces requires considerable expenditure. To levy taxes for these
purposes is fully compatible with the freedom the individual enjoys
in a free market economy" (third ed.,
p.
282).
Also, these later editions substantially alter the definition of free-
dom itself.
In
the original, Mises states:
"A
man is free as far as he can
live and get on without being at the mercy of arbitrary decisions on the
part of other people" (p. 279). Mises does not define "arbitrary," but
he appears to have in mind actions that infringe on someone's person
or property without his agreement. Revised editions, in contrast,
state: "we may define freedom as that state of affairs in which the
individual's decision to choose is not constrained by governmental
violence beyond the margin which the praxeological law restricts it
anyway" (third ed., p. 282). The phrase "praxeological law" (meaning
the law of cause and effect in human affairs) works here as qualifier;
it is so 'expansively applied that
any
government activity, however
arbitrary, that is said to preserve or achieve "freedom" might be
deemed permissible. The original definition, more specific and smn-
gent,
rules
out arbitrary interventions altogether.
Thus, these added passages in later editions go even further to
permit conscription, and it is here we find a direct inconsistency
withMises's prior writings.
In
particular, the passage is at odds with
Mises's defense of secession, which he elevated to the rank of a core
principle of the liberal program, as explained in Nation, State,
and
Economy in 191960 and even more emphatically in Liberalism in
1927." If every person is entitled to secede from the state then the
ower of coercion. No wonder that all who have had something new to offer
Eumanity have had nothing good to say of the state or its laws!" (San
Francisco: Cobden Press, [I9271 1985),
p.
58.
60. "No people and no part of
a
people shall be held against its will in a
political association that it does not want." Nation, State, and Economy (New
York University Press, [I91
91
1 983),
p.
65.
61. For Mises, the only possible objections to unlimited secession were
practical or technical, not principled concerns. Liberalism, pp. 109-1 10.
Introduction to the Scholar's Edition
xxiii
state becomes a kind of voluntary organization from which exit is
always allowed; accordingly, any form of conscription would have
to be considered illegitimate and impermissible. Even more strik-
ingly, however, the passage stands in contradiction to the discus-
sion, and rejection, in
Nationalokonomie
of conscription as a species
of interventionism which, according to its own internal "logic,"
leads inevitably to socialism and total war. "Military conscriptjon,"
1Mises wrote, "leads to compulsory public service of everyone capable
of work. The supreme commander controls the entire people,
...
the
mobilization has become total; people and state have become part
of the army; war socialism has replaced the market economy."62
Major Changes
in
Later Editions
Deletions
from
the First Edition
M.2, par. 32:
XV6, pars.
1-4
XVI.6.3,
par.
3:
XX.6,
pars. 43-44:
"What is wrong with the Germans
...
means of waging
war"
(p.
187)
"The words freedom and libe
rty...
he
can
attain
liberty"
(pp. 279-280)
"In calling the monopolist
's...
emergence of monopoly
prices"
@.
356)
"It is no
answer
to this to object
...
a sham,
they
are absent"
@.
563)
XXXI.6,
pars. 10-23: ("Remarks about the Nazi Barter Agreements"):
Entire section (pp. 796-799)
XXXIV.1,
par.
14:
"Neither does it mean that
...
vanguards of hostile
armies7'
(pp.
820-821; deleted from 3d edition only)
Additions to
the
Second
and
Third
Editions
XV.6,
pars. 1-13: UPhilosophers and lawyers have
...
no freedom at all"
(pp. 279-282; 3d ed.)
,XVI.6, sea.
5-6:
"If the available quantities
...
a cartel depends" (pp. 361-362;
3d ed.)
XW.19,
pars. 28-3 1: "The International Monetary Fund
...
monetary troubles"
(p. 478; 3d ed.)
XXVII.6,
pars. 9-18: ("Corruption"):
"An
analysis of interventionism
...
as justified" (pp. 734-736; 3d ed.)
62.
h'atimaliikonomie,
pp.
725-728.
xxiv
Human
Action
H
UW~NACTION,
building on and expanding its German prede-
cessor, transformed Austrian economics, as it is understood
today, into a predominantly American phenomenon with
a
dis-
tinctly Misesian imprint, and made possible the continuation of
the Austrian School after the mid-twentieth century. Thus the first
edition assumes an importance that extends beyond the mere histori-
cal.
It
reveals the issues and concerns that Mises considered primary
when releasing, at the height of his intellectual powers, the most
complete and integrated statement of his career.
In
particular, making
the unchanged first edition available again retrieves important pas-
sages that were later eiiminated, and clarifies questions raised by
unnecessary, and, in some cases, unfortunate additions and revisions
made to later editions.
That the original edition represents the fullest synthesis of
Mises's thought on method, theory, and policy, and is the book that
sustained the Austrian tradition and the integrity of economic
science after the socialist, Keynesian, Walrasian, Marshallian, and
positivist conquests of economic thought, is reason enough to reissue
the original on its fiftleth anniversary, making it widely available for
the first time in nearly four decades. A high place must be reserved
in the history of economic thought, indeed, in the history of ideas,
for ~Wses's masterwork. Even today,
Human
Action
points the way
to a brighter future for the science of economics and the practice
of human liberty
Jeffrey
M.
Herbener (Grove City College)
I-Ians-Hermann Hoppe F~versity of Nevada, Las Vegas)
Joseph
T
Saierno (Pace University
October
1998
23
63.
Jorg G~lido Hiilsmann and David Gordon also contributed to this
Introduction.
FOREWORD
F
K0M the fall of
I
934
until the summer of
1940
I had the
privilege of occupying the chair of International Eco-
nomic Kelations at the Graduate Institute of International
Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. In the serene atmosphere
of this seat of learning, which two eminent scholars, Paul
Mantoux and William
E.
Kappard, had organized and con-
tinued to direct,
I
set about executing an old plan of mine,
to write a comprehensive treatise on economics. The book-
Nationalokonomie, Theorie
des
Handelns
zmd
Wirtschaftens
-was published in Geneva in the gIoomy days of May, 19.10.
The present volume is not a translation of this earlier book.
Although the general structure has been little changed, all
parts have been rewritten.
To my friend Henry Hazlitt
I
wish to off er my very special
thanks for his kindness in reading the manuscript and giving
me most valuable suggestions about it.
I
must also gratefully
acknou~ledge my obligations to Mr. Arthur Coddard for lin-
guistic and stylistic advice.
I
am furthcrmore deeply indebted
to
Mr.
Eugene
A.
Davidson, Editor of the Yale University
Press, and to
Mr.
Leonard
E.
Read, President of the Founda-
tion for Economic Education, for their kind encouragcment
alld
~~nnnrt
rrw*-
I need hardly add that none of these gentlemen is either di-
rectly or indirectly responsible for any opinions contained in
this work.
LUDWIG
vos
MISES
New
York, February,
1949.
Permission has been granted by the publishers to use quatations
from the following works: George Santayana,
Persons and Places
(Charles Scribner's Sons); William James,
The Varieties of
Rkli-
gious Experience
(Longmans, Green
&
Co.); Harley Lutz,
Guide-
posts to
a
Free Ecorzonzy
(McGraw-Hill Book Company); Com-
mittee on Postwar Tax Policy,
A
Tax Program
for a Solvent
America
(The Ronald Press Company).
CONTENTS
Introduction
I
Economics and Praxeology
I
2
The Epistemological Problem of a General Theory
of Human Action
4
3
Economic Theory and the Practice of Human Ac-
tion
7
4
RCsumC
10
Chapter
I.
Acting Man
I
Purposeful Action and Animal Reaction
I I
r
The Prerequisites of Human Action
'3
On Happiness
On Instincts and Impulses
3
Human Action as an Ultimate Given
'7
4
Rationality and Irrationality; Subjectivism and Ob-
jectivity of Praxeological Research
I
8
5
Causality as a Requirement of Action
2
z
6
The Alter Ego
23
On the Serviceableness
of
Instincts
The Absolute End
Vegetative Man
Chapter
11.
The Epistemological
Problems
of the Sciences of
Human Action
I
Praxeology and History
30
2
The Formal and Aprioristic Character of Praxeology
32
The Alleged Logical Heterogeneity of Primitive Man
3
The A Priori and Reality
7
8
4
The Principle of hiethodological Individualism
-
4'
I
and
We
5
The Principle of Methodological Singularism
44
6
The Individual and Changing Features of Human
Action
46
7
The Scope and the Specific Method of History
47
8
Conception and Understanding
5
1
hTatural History and Human History
9
On
Ideal Types
59
10
The Procedure of Economics
64
I
I
The Limitations on Praxeological Concepts
69
Chapter
111.
Economics and the Revolt Against Reason
I
The Revolt Against Reason
72
2
The Logical Aspect of Polylogism
75
3
The Praxeological Aspect of Palylogism
7
7
4
Racial Polylogism
84
j
Polylogism and Understanding
8
7
6
The Case for Reason
89
Chapter
1V.
A First Analysis of the Category of Action
I
Ends and Means
2
The ScaIe of Value
3
The Scale of Needs
4
Action as an Exchange
Chapter
V.
Time
I
The Temporal Character of Praxeology
99
2
Past, Present, and Future
100
3
The Economization of Time
101
4
The Temporal ReIation Between Actions
102
Chapter
VI.
Uncertainty
I
Encertainty and Acting
105
2
The
Meaning
of
Probability
I
e5
3
Class Probability
107
4
Case Probability
I
10
5
Numerical Evaluation of Case Probability
113
6
Betting, Gambling, and Playing Games
115
7
Praxeological Prediction
117
Chapter
VII.
Action Within the World
I
The Law of Marginal Utility
z
The Law of Returns
CONTENTS
xxix
3
Human Labor as a Means
13I
Immediately Gratifying Labor and Mediately Grati-
fying Labor
1
he Creative Genius
4
Production
14"
PART
TWO
AC~ION
WITHIN
THE
FRAMEWORK
OF
SOCIETY
Chapter
VIII.
Human Society
I
Human Cooperation
I43
2
A Critique of the Holistic and Metaphysical View
of Society 145
Praxcology and Liberalism
Liberalism and Religion
3
The
Division
of
Labor
157
4
The Ricardian Law of Association
Current Errors Concerning the Law of Association
158
5
The Effects of the Division of Labor
163
6
The Individual Within Society
1
64
Thc Fable of the Mystic Communion
7
The Great Society
I
68
8
The Instinct of Agression
and
Destruction
Currcnt Misinterpretations of Modern Natural Sci-
'69
ence, EspecialIy of Darwinism
Chapter
1X.
The Role of Ideas
I
Human Reason
2
World
View
and Ideology
The
Fight Against Error
3
Might
Traditionalism as an Ideology
4
Meliorism and the Idea of Progress
Chapter
X.
Exchange Within Society
r
Autistic Exchange and Interpersonal Exchange
195
2
Contractual Bonds and Hegemonic Bonds
3
Calculative Action
'96
'99
Chapter
XI.
Valuation Without Calculation
I
The Gradation of the Means
ZOI
2
The Barter-Fiction of the Elementary Theory of
Value and Prices
202
The Theory of Value
and
Socialism
3
The Problem of Economic Calculation
207
4
Economic Calculation and the Market
2
10
Chapter XII.
The
Sphere of Economic Calculation
-
I
The Character of the Monetary Entries
213
2
The Limits of Economic Calculation
215
3
The Changeability of Prices
2
18
4
Stabilization
220
5
The Root of the Stabilization Idea
225
Chapter
XIII.
Monetary Calculation as a Tool of Action
I
Monetary Calculation as a Method of Thinking
230
2
Economic Calculation and the Science of Human
Action
232
Chapter
XIV.
The
Scope
and
Method
of Catallactics
I
The Delimitation of the CataIlactic Problems
233
The Denial of Economics
2
The Method of Imaginary Constructions
237
3
The Pure Market Economy
238
The Maximization of Profits
4
The Autistic Economy
244
5
The State of Rest and the Evenly Rotating Econ-
omy
245
6
The Stationary Economy
251
7
The Integration of Catallactic Functions
252
The Entrepreneurial Function in
the
Stationary
Economy
CONTENTS
Chapter
XV.
The Market
The Characteristics of the Market Economy
258
Capital
2
60
Capitalism 264
The Sovereignty of the Consumers
270
The Metaphorical Employment of the Terminology
of
Political Rule
Competition
273
Freedom
279
Inequality of Wealth and Income
285
Entrepreneurial Profit
and
Loss
2
86
Entrepreneurial Profits and Losses in a Progressing
Economy
292
Some Observations on the Underconsumption Bogey
and on the Purchasing Power Argument
Promoters, Managers, Technicians, and Bureaucrats
300
The Selective Process
308
The Individual and the Market
3x1
Business Propaganda
3'6
The
"Volkswirtschaf
t"
3'9
Chapter
XVI.
Prices
1
The Pricing Process
324
2
Valuation and Appraisement
328
3
The Prices of the Goods of Higher Orders
3 30
A
Limitation on the Pricing of Factors of Production
4
Cost Accounting
336
5
Logical
Catallactics
Versus
Mathematical
Catallactics
347
6 Monopoly Prices
3 54
The Mathematical Treatment of the Theory of
Mo-
nopoly Prices
7
Good Will
376
8
Monopoly of Demand
380
9
Consumption as Affected by Monopoly Prices
381
10
Price Discrimination on the Part of the Seller
385
11
Price Discrimination on the Part of the Buyer
I
2
The Connexity of Prices
388
I
3
Prices
and
Income
388
3
90
14
Prices and Production
391
15
The
Chimera of Nonmarket Prices
3
92