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Asher
Registered Member
Date Joined Apr 2003
Total Posts : 477
| Posted 2/2/2010 4:30 PM (GMT -6) |   | I am an avid advocate of both open theism and Austrian school economics.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_School
What is so interesting is how they mesh so well, while having started at different points to arrive at the meshing points.
In reading:
Ludwig von Mises (Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, Epistemological Problems of Economics, Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution, Economic Freedom and Interventionism, Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis, etc)
Murray Rothbard (Man, Economy, and State , For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, The Ethics of Liberty, etc)
Hans-Hermann Hoppe (Praxeology and Economic Science, Economic Science and the Austrian Method, The Economics and Ethics of Private Property, etc)
Friedrich von Hayek, David Gordon, Lew Rockwell, Jeffrey Herbener, Jörg Guido Hülsmann, Ralph Raico, George Reisman, Peter G. Klein, Joseph Salerno, Hans Sennholz, and many others...
I have been fascinated at their insistence upon libertarian free will and an open future based in economic praxeology and methodological individualism.
Here is where I think there is an avenue of approach toward the Austrian economists open to open theists...
Most Austrian economists are either agnostic or generic theists. Given their held beliefs in their field of economics, traditional Christian positions that hold to either determinism (Calvinists) or simple fore-knowledge (Arminians) were/are unappealing to them. They already disagree with those positions, from an economic theory standpoint. (Not a standpoint that they share with most other economists by the way, since most traditional economists disagree with Austrian economic theory and methodology)
So, whereas open theists adjoin their openness and their theology, Austrian economists, while being open and while, for the most part, being theists (Austrians who are also Objectivists excluded) have not adjoined these together...and may not be that aware of the open theism movement.
Every year the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama hold several scholarly conferences. Mostly dealing with economic considerations, but also history, philosophy, law, etc. And if an open theist were to speak at one of these conferences, I believe they would be warmly received, inasmuch as I think we are natural allies. I would probably say that most Austrians ARE open theists without knowing it (the Objectivists once again excluded)...and that open theists should probably be Austrians in their economics if they care about consistency at all.
Just a thought that excites me...if any of you more scholarly types have any interest. | | Back to Top | | |
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Starkman
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1747
| Posted 2/2/2010 4:54 PM (GMT -6) | | Yeah, I suck at math and the rest, as Tom said, but Mises was definitely spot on when it came to his understanding of economics. In all practicality, Mises didn't say anything that wasn't pretty much common sense. And I mean that in the most possible respectful way. He simply understood the common-sense reality behind what makes and destroys the intrinsic value of money (well, not REAL money, but what we do when we substitute for it). Oh, and old man Rothschild understood all that stuff too...sadly!
Starkman | | Back to Top | | |
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Starkman
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1747
| Posted 2/3/2010 2:37 PM (GMT -6) | | No, Tom really does suck at math and economics. If he ever takes you out for dinner, it's you who pays for it. (That "new" math stuff really screwed him up, I'm telling you!)
Ha!
Starkman | | Back to Top | | |
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Asher
Registered Member
Date Joined Apr 2003
Total Posts : 477
| Posted 2/3/2010 3:14 PM (GMT -6) | | TGB: I suck at economics, math, and numbers in general.
See, here is another way in which the Austrian school is appealing. They say that given free will action by individual human beings (human action: one of their most basic assumptions) that econometrics (the combining of economics, math, and numbers) is largely just economic history that has no predictive value for economic forecasting. Which gains them the condemnation and cries of heresy from more classical (e.g. followers of Adam Smith, Keynes, etc) and socialist economists.
The Austrians say that economics is more of a theoretical science, like mathematics, than the more empirical sciences like chemistry, physics, etc.
What I would say is that in the same way that open theism is the logical working out of libertarian free will to the area of theology...the Austrian school is the logical working out of libertarian free will to the area of economics. There are some things that can be said with more logical certitude---the Austrian Business Cycle Theory more or less says that the Great Depression and the current economic crisis were inevitable given central bank created credit growth, etc---and some things that are more probabilistic--- they could never say with any precision when such collapses would begin or how long they would last because there is simply too much free human action to account for to give time specifications.
The socialists (i.e. Calvinists and other theological determinists) say there is no free will in economics (not individual will anyways) there are classes and their inevitable historical movement to certain positions. And economics are also subject to definite planning by state apparatus (read Mises "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth" for a devastating critique of socialist ability to actually carry through with this premise.)
The interventionistic classical economic schools of Adam Smith and Keynes, etc (i.e. free will compatibilists) say there is free human action, but that it is also possible to predict with econometric methods future economic states with more certainty than Austrians say is possible. These economists usually are proponents of mixed economies (Capitalism and Socialism combined to various degrees) (read Mises Interventionism: An Economic Analysis and Epistemological Problems of Economics for critiques of these positions)
And the Austrians are defamed and suppressed by the spokesmen of the dominant economic positions of socialism and interventionist economics (the U.S. economy) much like open theists are treated similarly by Calvinists and combatibilists.
So, the Austrians are fighting very similar battles to open theists. | | Back to Top | | |
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