The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science

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

Links

• Resources page at Mises.org (including full text)