critical rationalism blog

Plenary session 7, New Developments in Economics.

The Mont Pelerin Society Conference program had papers on happiness in society by Jason Potts, the economist as guru by Geoffrey Brennan and behavioural economics, law, liberty and the quest for the Third Way by Judge Douglas Ginsburg.

The Virtual Alternative.

1. Peter Boettke (1997) on the wrong turn taken to formalism. This is a lengthy and detailed argument along the lines that the postwar turn to mathematical formalism, especially as practiced by the strong supporters of markets at Chicago, produced two perverse effects. One was exaggerated expectations of markets (the Chicago error) and the other (in reaction) was the exaggerated response to imperfections in markets (the anti-market, regulation error).

Continue reading →

C Wright Mills on Intellectual Craftsmanship.  Mills wrote an important critique of the prevailing fashions in sociology during the 1960s, notably “grand theory” which was represented by Talcott Parsons in his post-1937 “general systems theory”,  and “abstracted empiricism” which piled up endless statistics, often questionnaire-based, with little relevance to any theory at all. The Sociological Imagination is flawed by Mills’ ideological leanings but there is a superb appendix on intellectual craftsmanship which should be read and re-read by all aspiring scholars and serious researchers.

Continue reading →

Thanks to the Questia on-line library, where text can be easily cut and pasted (unlike Google books) some sections of The Poverty can be found here. The sections are on the practical aims of the critique of historicism, the technological or engineering approach to reform (a la Mises, not holisistic or collectivist), the unity of methods in the natural and human sciences, the difference between theoretical and historical studies, situational analysis and the institutional approach to progress.

It is most unfortunate that so much time has been wasted by economists and social scientists in criticism of Popper’s  “falsificationism” instead of reading The Poverty to find out what he had to say specifically about the human sciences. His comments on the approach to the evolution and influence of institutions should have prompted people to pursue the kind of work that eventually earned Douglas North a Nobel Prize.

This is the last book that Mises wrote. It has been released by the Mises Institute in a new edition and it comes with a very big pitch.

There are two senses in which this book is indeed ultimate: it deals with the very core of economics as a science, and it is the last book that he wrote. For that reason, it is a real milestone in the history of the Misesian oeuvre that this book is newly available in this beautiful new hardbound edition.

Also, the content reflects a lifetime of learning and his desire to make one last impassioned statement to save both economics and liberty from sure destruction at the hands of intellectual error.

Continue reading →

The theme of this conference is “Getting over the advantage line”.

This is for people who can’t get to the live Mont Pelerin Society program. Most of the themes of the live program are duplicated, and there are some additional strands.  The aim is to “get over the advantage line” by adding something extra to the great ideas of classical liberalism. Of course not everything in the supplementary papers is original; the same applies to the paper at MPS. This program is dedicated to the proposition that there are some good old ideas that can add weight to the liberal scrum and there are some good new ones that have not had a run yet.

Some of these were foreshadowed at the Mont Pelerin meeting in Christchurch (1989) but have not made much headway since that time. In the commentary on some papers on Popper there was the suggestion that his ideas on objective knowledge and the contents of thought mount a challenge to some obscurantist fashions in the theory of literature and cultural studies, so this contribution may ultimately be as valuable for the cause of freedom and humanity as his unification of the ‘two cultures’ and his defence of democratic principles in The Open Society and its Enemies. 

More can be said on Popper’s theory of metaphysical research programmes, and Bartley’s exciting innovations in the theory of rationality and ‘metacontexts’. Exegesis of these theories has scarcely begun and as their logical consequences are unpacked the results are likely to provide massive support to the liberal cause.

 Twenty years later it is probably time to move these thoughts forward.

THE PROGRAM Continue reading →

Next week the Mont Pelerin Society meets in Sydney (Australia). An all-star cast of speakers will address a range of topics under the general theme of The 21st Century Liberal Enlightenment.

The speakers include some locals, among them Sinclair Davidson (academic and Catallaxy blogger), Noel Pearson (Aboriginal leader), Paul Kelly (journalist and author) and John Howard (ex Prime Minister) and some big names from offshore like Harold Demsetz, Terence Kealey, Chandran Kukathas, Deepak Lal and Ken Minogue.

The main program runs from Registration on Sundey 10 to the Closing Dinner on Friday 15. There is a stunning recreational program for partners who want to get out and about and see the Rocks, walk to Manly and take in an Aboriginal tribal experience. They all get to see a sheep station. And I hope that a DVD of Wake in Fright was sent out with the letters of invitation to orientate visitors to the authentic old Australia before it was undermined by foreigners and latte-sippers.

Heads up on a new blog created by Troy Camplin, a frequent contributor to the site of the Austrian economists, now Coordination Problem.

This close to my interests as you saw from the post on the wider agenda of classical liberalism.