4 ms·

What does that mean? I'm not versed in economics, and generally find it overwhelming to look into, because of deeply-set political opinions and implications bu

by nfoz 8y ago

What does that mean? I'm not versed in economics, and generally find it overwhelming to look into, because of deeply-set political opinions and implications buried in all of it. Is "economic school" a political choice (differing goals) or a choice of tooling/methodology?

yasp 8y ago
The Austrian school overall disavows empiricism as the means by which to infer economic laws and instead views economics as a field closer to philosophy. For more information on the method I recommend the pamphlet Economic Science and the Austrian Method. [0] Re: my previous comment, that, in short, money and credit are like any other markets. If you're interested in a gentle introduction to the Austrian school of thought I recommend the book Man, Economy, and State. Skip the final section of the book entitled Power and Market. [1] [0] https://mises.org/library/economic-science-and-austrian-method https://mises.org/library/economic-science-and-austrian-meth... [1] https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-ma...
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > The Austrian school overall disavows empiricism as the means by which to infer economic laws and instead views economics as a field closer to philosophy Empiricism is a philosophical approach; Austrian economics isn't any closer to “philosophy” than empirical economics is, it just is closer to the particular (and widely rejected in most of modern Western philosophy though it survives in a form within some schools of Christian theology as well as Austrian economics) philosophical belief that claims about material facts can be justified a priori by deduction from axioms alone without reference to a posteriori knowledge.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> Is "economic school" a political choice (differing goals) or a choice of tooling/methodology? That...depends on the “school”, and exactly the bounds of the “political”. The choice between the Austrian school and most of the rest of economics is between an interpretive framework that eschews empirical science as inappropriate for the field of economics (Austrian school) vs. various approaches that at least outwardly aspire to the norms of empirical science (most of the rest of economics.) Among the schools espousing empiricism, confirmation bias (and thus political preconceptions) still plays a role between, say, neoclassical schools like Chicago and Keynesianism and it's offshoots, but that's at least in part because economics is hard due to confounding variables, and actually avoiding influence of confirmation bias in such circumstances is difficult even when intelligent people are acting in the best of faith.

by nfoz 8y ago

yasp 8y ago

The Austrian school overall disavows empiricism as the means by which to infer economic laws and instead views economics as a field closer to philosophy. For more information on the method I recommend the pamphlet Economic Science and the Austrian Method. [0] Re: my previous comment, that, in short, money and credit are like any other markets. If you're interested in a gentle introduction to the Austrian school of thought I recommend the book Man, Economy, and State. Skip the final section of the book entitled Power and Market. [1] [0] https://mises.org/library/economic-science-and-austrian-method https://mises.org/library/economic-science-and-austrian-meth... [1] https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market https://mises.org/library/man-economy-and-state-power-and-ma...

dragonwriter 8y ago
> The Austrian school overall disavows empiricism as the means by which to infer economic laws and instead views economics as a field closer to philosophy Empiricism is a philosophical approach; Austrian economics isn't any closer to “philosophy” than empirical economics is, it just is closer to the particular (and widely rejected in most of modern Western philosophy though it survives in a form within some schools of Christian theology as well as Austrian economics) philosophical belief that claims about material facts can be justified a priori by deduction from axioms alone without reference to a posteriori knowledge.

dragonwriter 8y ago

> Is "economic school" a political choice (differing goals) or a choice of tooling/methodology? That...depends on the “school”, and exactly the bounds of the “political”. The choice between the Austrian school and most of the rest of economics is between an interpretive framework that eschews empirical science as inappropriate for the field of economics (Austrian school) vs. various approaches that at least outwardly aspire to the norms of empirical science (most of the rest of economics.) Among the schools espousing empiricism, confirmation bias (and thus political preconceptions) still plays a role between, say, neoclassical schools like Chicago and Keynesianism and it's offshoots, but that's at least in part because economics is hard due to confounding variables, and actually avoiding influence of confirmation bias in such circumstances is difficult even when intelligent people are acting in the best of faith.