MISES, Ludwig von.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Theory and History. First edition, presentation copy to Robert Hessen, inscribed by Mises on the front free endpaper, "To Robert Hessen, Ludwig Mises." Hessen, a historian of American economic and business history at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, was also editor and secretary to Ayn Rand.One of the last major works by the libertarian philosopher, economist, and historian, this is "a sweeping epistemological vindication of the case for liberty and capitalism" (Hülsmann, p. 956). Here Mises refines his case for laissez-faire capitalism from an "epistemological point of view". In particular, he argues that "the only scientific interpretation of social reality was based on economics and history, and that the conclusions of both these disciplines led to the more speculative conclusions of utilitarian philosophy as he understood it. He showed that the major alternative approaches - Marxism, positivism, and historicism - despite their pretensions to science, were untenable on epistemological grounds" (Hülsmann, pp. 949-50).

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