Table of Contents
Editor’s Note xi
Introduction 1
1 Methodological Dualism 1
2 Economics and Metaphysics 2
3 Regularity and Prediction 3
4 The Concept of the Laws of Nature 4
5 The Limitations of Human Knowledge 5
6 Regularity and Choosing 6
7 Means and Ends 8
Part 1 Value 11
Chapter 1 Judgments of Value 13
1 Judgments of Value and Propositions of Existence 13
2 Valuation and Action 14
3 The Subjectivity of Valuation 15
4 The Logical and Syntactical Structure of Judgments of Value 16
Chapter 2 Knowledge and Value 18
1 The Bias Doctrine 18
2 Common Weal versus Special Interests 19
3 Economics and Value 22
4 Bias and Intolerance 23
Chapter 3 The Quest for Absolute Values 24
1 The Issue 24
2 Conflicts within Society 25
3 A Remark on the Alleged Medieval Unanimity 29
4 The Idea of Natural Law 30
5 Revelation 33
6 Atheistic Intuition 34
7 The Idea of Justice 34
8 The Utilitarian Doctrine Restated 37
9 On Aesthetic Values 41
10 The Historical Significance of the Quest for Absolute Values 42
Chapter 4 The Negation of Valuation 46
Part 2 Determinism and Materialism 47
Chapter 5 Determinism and Its Critics 49
1 Determinism 49
2 The Negation of Ideological Factors 50
3 The Free-Will Controversy 51
4 Foreordination and Fatalism 53
5 Determinism and Penology 55
6 Determinism and Statistics 56
7 The Autonomy of the Sciences of Human Action 61
Chapter 6 Materialism 63
1 Two Varieties of Materialism 63
2 The Secretion Analogy 65
3 The Political Implications of Materialism 66
Chapter 7 Dialectical Materialism 69
1 Dialectics and Marxism 69
2 The Material Productive Forces 72
3 The Class Struggle 75
4 The Ideological Impregnation of Thought 82
5 The Conflict of Ideologies 87
6 Ideas and Interests 89
7 The Class Interests of the Bourgeoisie 95
8 The Critics of Marxism 98
9 Marxian Materialism and Socialism 103
Chapter 8 Philosophy of History 106
1 The Theme of History 106
2 The Theme of the Philosophy of History 108
3 The Difference between the Point of View of History and That of Philosophy of History 110
4 Philosophy of History and the Idea of God 113
5 Activistic Determinism and Fatalistic Determinism 117
Part 3 Epistemological Problems of History 121
Chapter 9 The Concept of Historical Individuality 123
1 The Ultimate Given of History 123
2 The Role of the Individual in History 124
3 The Chimera of the Group Mind 126
4 Planning History 131
Chapter 10 Historicism 133
1 The Meaning of Historicism 133
2 The Rejection of Economics 137
3 The Quest for Laws of Historical Change 141
4 Historicist Relativism 143
5 Dissolving History 146
6 Undoing History 151
7 Undoing Economic History 156
Chapter 11 The Challenge of Scientism 160
1 Positivism and Behaviorism 160
2 The Collectivist Dogma 166
3 The Concept of the Social Sciences 170
4 The Nature of Mass Phenomena 172
Chapter 12 Psychology and Thymology 176
1 Naturalistic Psychology and Thymology 176
2 Thymology and Praxeology 180
3 Thymology as a Historical Discipline 181
4 History and Fiction 182
5 Rationalization 186
6 Introspection 187
Chapter 13 Meaning and Use of the Study of History 189
1 The Why of History 189
2 The Historical Situation 190
3 History of the Remote Past 191
4 Falsifying History 193
5 History and Humanism 194
6 History and the Rise of Aggressive Nationalism 196
7 History and Judgments of Value 197
Chapter 14 The Epistemological Features of History 201
1 Prediction in the Natural Sciences 201
2 History and Prediction 202
3 The Specific Understanding of History 205
4 Thymological Experience 207
5 Real Types and Ideal Types 209
Part 4 The Course of History 213
Chapter 15 Philosophical Interpretations of History 215
1 Philosophies of History and Philosophical Interpretations of History 215
2 Environmentalism 216
3 The Egalitarians’ Interpretation of History 217
4 The Racial Interpretation of History 220
5 The Secularism of Western Civilization 224
6 The Rejection of Capitalism by Antisecularism 226
Chapter 16 Present-Day Trends and the Future 230
1 The Reversal of the Trend toward Freedom 230
2 The Rise of the Ideology of Equality in Wealth and Income 232
3 The Chimera of a Perfect State of Mankind 239
4 The Alleged Unbroken Trend toward Progress 243
5 The Suppression of “Economic” Freedom 245
6 The Uncertainty of the Future 250
Index 251
