The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science
Author(s)	Ludwig von Mises
Country	United States
Series	The William Volker fund series in the humane studies
Subject(s)	Economics
Genre(s)	Non-fiction
Publisher	Van Nostrand
Publication date	1962
Media type	Print
Pages	xi, 148 p.
OCLC Number	169278

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science is a treatise written by Ludwig von Mises which was first published in 1962 and ended up being his final book. The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science concentrates on the epistemological basis of economics. Or more generally the contribution that economics, or the science of human action, could make to our understanding of the universe, or as Mises said:

This essay proposes to stress the fact that there is in the universe something for the description and analysis of which the natural sciences cannot contribute anything. There are events beyond the range of those events that the procedures of the natural sciences are fit to observe and to describe. There is human action.

—Ludwig von Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science

Mises uses both methodological dualism and methodological individualism to elucidate the differences between economics and the natural sciences, he pays special attention to addressing the criticisms that logical positivists had put forth against economics. Furthermore Mises spends time explaining the a priori nature of praxeology, discussing how praxeology is based on deductive reasoning from the a priori category of action. The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science is also the source of the memorable Mises quote:

Yet the criterion of truth is that it works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it.

—Ludwig von Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science

See also

• Economic Science and the Austrian Method
• Epistemological Problems of Economics
• An Introduction to Economic Reasoning
• Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences
• Theory and History

Links

• Resources page at Mises.org (including full text)
  • Foreword to 2nd edition by Israel M. Kirzner
  • Alternate PDF link

• Articles, essays and reviews
  • "How Mises Rebuilt Economics" by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, from Economic Science and the Austrian Method
  • "Praxeological Economics and Mathematical Economics" by Gene Callahan, April 2006

• Methodological Foundations literature collection at Mises.org
• Austrian Methodology for the Social Sciences literature collection at Mises.org

• Quotable Mises: The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science

• Other media
  • Economic Science and the Austrian Method lecture series by Hans-Hermann Hoppe

• Related courses
  • How to Know: The Epistemology of Ludwig von Mises Mises Academy course by David Gordon