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] Human Action: A Treatise on Economics is the magnum opus
Magnum opus

Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning great work, refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of an author, artist, or composer....
 of the Austrian
Austrian School

The Austrian School is a Heterodox economics school of economics. It emphasizes the spontaneous organizing power of the price mechanism, holds that the complexity of subjective human choices makes mathematical modelling of the evolving market extremely difficult and therefore advocates a laissez faire approach to the economy....
 economist
Economist

An economist is an expert in the social science of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy....
 Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian economics, philosopher, and liberalism who had a major influence on the modern libertarianism movement....
. It presents a case for laissez-faire
Laissez-faire

Laissez-faire is a term used to describe a policy of allowing events to take their own course. The term is a French language phrase literally meaning "let do"....
 capitalism
Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are private property and controlled rather than commonly, publicly, or state-owned and controlled....
 based on Mises' praxeology
Praxeology

Praxeology is a framework for modeling human Action . The term was coined and defined as "The science of human action" in 1890 by Alfred Espinas in the Revue Philosophique, but the most common use of the term is in connection with the work of Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian School of economics....
, or rational investigation of human decision-making. It rejects positivism
Positivism

Positivism is a philosophy which holds that the only authentic knowledge is that based on actual sense experience. Such knowledge can come only from affirmation of theories through strict scientific method....
 within economics
Economics

File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
. It defends an a priori epistemology
Epistemology

Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. It addresses the questions:...
 and underpins praxeology with a foundation of methodological individualism
Methodological individualism

Methodological individualism is a widely-used term in the social sciences. Its advocates see it as a philosophical method aimed at explaining and understanding broad society-wide developments as the aggregation of decisions by individuals....
 and laws of apodictic certainty.






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Humanactionscholar
] Human Action: A Treatise on Economics is the magnum opus
Magnum opus

Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning great work, refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of an author, artist, or composer....
 of the Austrian
Austrian School

The Austrian School is a Heterodox economics school of economics. It emphasizes the spontaneous organizing power of the price mechanism, holds that the complexity of subjective human choices makes mathematical modelling of the evolving market extremely difficult and therefore advocates a laissez faire approach to the economy....
 economist
Economist

An economist is an expert in the social science of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy....
 Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian economics, philosopher, and liberalism who had a major influence on the modern libertarianism movement....
. It presents a case for laissez-faire
Laissez-faire

Laissez-faire is a term used to describe a policy of allowing events to take their own course. The term is a French language phrase literally meaning "let do"....
 capitalism
Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are private property and controlled rather than commonly, publicly, or state-owned and controlled....
 based on Mises' praxeology
Praxeology

Praxeology is a framework for modeling human Action . The term was coined and defined as "The science of human action" in 1890 by Alfred Espinas in the Revue Philosophique, but the most common use of the term is in connection with the work of Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian School of economics....
, or rational investigation of human decision-making. It rejects positivism
Positivism

Positivism is a philosophy which holds that the only authentic knowledge is that based on actual sense experience. Such knowledge can come only from affirmation of theories through strict scientific method....
 within economics
Economics

File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
. It defends an a priori epistemology
Epistemology

Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. It addresses the questions:...
 and underpins praxeology with a foundation of methodological individualism
Methodological individualism

Methodological individualism is a widely-used term in the social sciences. Its advocates see it as a philosophical method aimed at explaining and understanding broad society-wide developments as the aggregation of decisions by individuals....
 and laws of apodictic certainty. Mises argues that the free-market economy not only outdistances any government-planned system, but ultimately serves as the foundation of civilization itself.

Nationalökonomie: Theorie Des Handelns und Wirtschaftens is the 1940 German-language predecessor to Human Action.

Contents

Part One: Human Action
I. Acting Man
II. The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action
III. Economics and the Revolt Against Reason
IV. A First Analysis of the Category of Action
V. Time
VI. Uncertainty
VII. Action Within the World

Part Two: Actions Within the Framework of Society
VIII. Human Society
IX. The Role of Ideas
X. Exchange Within Society

Part Three: Economic Calculation
XI. Valuation Without Calculation
XII. The Sphere of Economic Calculation
XIII. Monetary Calculation as a Tool of Action

Part Four: Catallactics or Economics of the Market Society
XIV. The Scope and Method of Catallactics
XV. The Market
XVI. Prices
XVII. Indirect Exchange
XVIII. Action in the Passing of Time
XIX. The Rate of Interest
XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle
XXI. Work and Wages
XXII. The Nonhuman Original Factors of Production
XXIII. The Data of the Market
XXIV. Harmony and Conflict of Interests

Part Five: Social Cooperation Without a Market
XXV. The Imaginary Construction of a Socialist Society
XXVI. The Impossibility of Economic Calculation Under Socialism

Part Six: The Hampered Market Economy
XXVII. The Government and the Market
XXVIII. Interference by Taxation
XXIX. Restriction of Production
XXX. Interference with the Structure of Prices
XXXI. Currency and Credit Manipulation
XXXII. Confiscation and Redistribution
XXXIII. Syndicalism and Corporativism
XXXIV. The Economics of War
XXXV. The Welfare Principle Versus the Market Principle
XXXVI. The Crisis of Interventionism

Part Seven: The Place of Economics in Society
XXXVII. The Nondescript Character of Economics
XXXVIII. The Place of Economics in Learning
XXXIX. Economics and the Essential Problems of Human Existence


Publishing history

  • The first edition of the work came out in 1949, from the Yale University Press
    Yale University Press

    Yale University Press is a book publisher 1908 in literature by George Parmly Day. It became an official Academic department of Yale University 1961 in literature, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
  • The revised and expanded second edition came out in 1963. This edition, also by the Yale University Press, was full of mistakes and another one had to be done quickly afterwards, by another editor.
  • The revised third edition came out in 1966 from Henry Regney
    Regnery Publishing

    Regnery Publishing in Washington, D.C. is a publisher which specializes in American conservatism books characterized on their website as "contrary to those of 'mainstream' publishers in New York." Since 1993, Regnery Publishing has been a division of Eagle Publishing, which also owns the weekly magazine Human Events....
    .
  • The fourth edition came out in 1996, with revisions by Bettina B. Greaves. Available in hardback single (Liberty Fund
    Liberty Fund

    Liberty Fund, Inc., is a private, educational foundation presently headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States It was founded in 1960 by Pierre F....
    , ISBN 0-86597-630-9) and four volume paperback editions (Liberty Fund, ISBN 0865976317), as well as single volume paperback (Fox & Wilkes, ISBN 0930073185).
  • In 1998 the Ludwig von Mises Institute
    Ludwig von Mises Institute

    The Ludwig von Mises Institute , based in Auburn, Alabama, is a right-libertarianism academic organization engaged in research and scholarship in the fields of economics, philosophy and political economy....
     brought back the first edition as the "Scholars Edition" ISBN 0945466242.


See also

  • Austrian school
    Austrian School

    The Austrian School is a Heterodox economics school of economics. It emphasizes the spontaneous organizing power of the price mechanism, holds that the complexity of subjective human choices makes mathematical modelling of the evolving market extremely difficult and therefore advocates a laissez faire approach to the economy....
  • Methodenstreit
    Methodenstreit

    Methodenstreit is a German term referring to an intellectual controversy or debate over epistemology, research methodology, or the way in which academic inquiry is framed or pursued....
  • Praxeology
    Praxeology

    Praxeology is a framework for modeling human Action . The term was coined and defined as "The science of human action" in 1890 by Alfred Espinas in the Revue Philosophique, but the most common use of the term is in connection with the work of Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian School of economics....
  • Action theory
    Action theory

    Action theory is an area in philosophy concerned with theories about the processes causing intentional human bodily movements of more or less complex kind....


External links

  • ( 4th, Ed.)