Table of Contents
Preface to the Second Edition xi
Some Preliminary Observations Concerning Praxeology
Instead of an Introduction 1
1 The Permanent Substratum of Epistemology 1
2 On Action 2
3 On Economics 3
4 The Starting Point of Praxeological Thinking 4
5 The Reality of the External World 5
6 Causality and Teleology 6
7 The Category of Action 7
8 The Sciences of Human Action 7
CHAPTER 1 The Human Mind 9
1 The Logical Structure of the Human Mind 9
2 A Hypothesis about the Origin of the A Priori
Categories 12
3 The A Priori 15
4 The A Priori Representation of Reality 16
5 Induction 18
6 The Paradox of Probability Empiricism 23
7 Materialism 25
8 The Absurdity of Any Materialistic Philosophy 26
CHAPTER 2 The Activistic Basis of Knowledge 30
1 Man and Action 30
2 Finality 31
3 Valuation 33
4 The Chimera of Unified Science 34
5 The Two Branches of the Sciences of Human Action 36
6 The Logical Character of Praxeology 39
7 The Logical Character of History 40
8 The Thymological Method 41
CHAPTER 3 Necessity and Volition 47
1 The Infinite 47
2 The Ultimate Given 48
3 Statistics 49
4 Free Will 51
5 Inevitability 54
CHAPTER 4 Certainty and Uncertainty 56
1 The Problem of Quantitative Definiteness 56
2 Certain Knowledge 57
3 The Uncertainty of the Future 58
4 Quantification and Understanding in Acting
and in History 59
5 The Precariousness of Forecasting in Human Affairs 60
6 Economic Prediction and the Trend Doctrine 61
7 Decision-Making 62
8 Confirmation and Refutability 62
9 The Examination of Praxeological Theorems 64
CHAPTER 5 On Some Popular Errors Concerning the
Scope and Method of Economics 66
1 The Research Fable 66
2 The Study of Motives 67
3 Theory and Practice 69
4 The Pitfalls of Hypostatization 70
5 On the Rejection of Methodological Individualism 72
6 The Approach of Macroeconomics 74
7 Reality and Play 78
8 Misinterpretation of the Climate of Opinion 81
9 The Belief in the Omnipotence of Thought 82
10 The Concept of a Perfect System of Government 85
11 The Behavioral Sciences 91
CHAPTER 6 Further Implications of the Neglect of
Economic Thinking 94
1 The Zoological Approach to Human Problems 94
2 The Approach of the “Social Sciences” 95
3 The Approach of Economics 98
4 A Remark about Legal Terminology 99
5 The Sovereignty of the Consumers 101
CHAPTER 7 The Epistemological Roots of Monism 104
1 The Nonexperimental Character of Monism 104
2 The Historical Setting of Positivism 106
3 The Case of the Natural Sciences 108
4 The Case of the Sciences of Human Action 109
5 The Fallacies of Positivism 110
CHAPTER 8 Positivism and the Crisis of Western Civilization 113
1 The Misinterpretation of the Universe 113
2 The Misinterpretation of the Human Condition 114
3 The Cult of Science 116
4 The Epistemological Support of Totalitarianism 117
5 The Consequences 120
Index 121
