Ludwig von Mises should not be confused with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
| Ludwig von Mises | |
| School Tradition: | Austrian School |
| Birth Name: | Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises |
| Birth Date: | 29 September 1881 |
| Birth Place: | Lemberg, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary |
| Death Place: | New York City, U.S. |
| Resting Place: | Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, Westchester County, New York, U.S |
| Field: | Economics Political economy Philosophy of science Epistemology Methodology Rationalism Logic Classical liberalism Libertarianism |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk |
| Doctoral Students: | |
| Institution: |
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| Contributions: | |
| Relatives: |
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| Spouse: | Margit von Mises |
| Signature: | Ludwig von Mises signature.png |
| Alma Mater: | University of Vienna |
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (pronounced as /de/; 29 September 1881 – 10 October 1973) was an Austrian–American historian, logician, sociologist, and economist of the Austrian School. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberalism and the power of consumers.[1] He is best known for his work in praxeology, particularly for studies comparing communism and capitalism, as well as for being a defender of classical liberalism[2] in the face of rising illiberalism and authoritarianism throughout much of Europe during the 20th century.
Mises emigrated from Austria to the United States in 1940, fleeing from Nazis who burnt down his library and forced him to leave the continent.[3] Since the mid-20th century, libertarian movements, and the field of economics as a whole, have been strongly influenced by Mises' writings.[4] Mises' student Friedrich Hayek viewed Mises as one of the major figures in the revival of classical liberalism in the post-war era. Hayek's work The Transmission of the Ideals of Freedom (1951) pays high tribute to the influence of Mises in the 20th-century libertarian movement.[5] Economist Tyler Cowen lists his writings as "the most important works of the 20th century" and as "among the most important economics articles, ever".
Mises's Private Seminar created a leading group of economists.[6] Many of its alumni, including Friedrich Hayek and Oskar Morgenstern, emigrated from Austria to the United States and Great Britain. Mises has been described as having approximately seventy close students in Austria.[7]
Mises received many honors throughout the course of his lifetime—honorary doctorates from Grove City College (1957), New York University (1963), and the University of Freiburg (1964) in Germany. His accomplishments were recognized in 1956 by his alma mater, the University of Vienna, when his doctorate was memorialized on its 50th anniversary and "renewed," a European tradition, and in 1962 by the Austrian government. He was also cited in 1969 as "Distinguished Fellow" by the American Economic Association.[8]
Ludwig von Mises was born on 29 September 1881 to Jewish parents in Lemberg, then in the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and now in Ukraine. His great-grandfather Meyer Rachmiel Mises had been ennobled a few months before Ludwig’s birth, receiving the honorific Edler (indicating a non-landed noble family), and the right to add the nobiliary particle von to his name; his family had been involved in financing and constructing railroads.[9] His mother Adele (née Landau) was a niece of Joachim Landau, a Liberal Party deputy to the Austrian Parliament.[10] Arthur von Mises was stationed in Lemberg as a construction engineer with the Czernowitz railway company.
By the age of 12, Mises spoke fluent German, Russian, Polish and French, read Latin and could understand Ukrainian.[11] Mises had a younger brother, Richard von Mises, who became a mathematician and a member of the Vienna Circle, and a probability theorist.[12]
Mises was educated at the Akademisches Gymnasium in Vienna from 1892 to 1900, before entering the University of Vienna, where he studied law and the social sciences, initially in preparation for a career as a civil servant.[13] [14] There, he first encountered the works of Carl Menger, whose book Gründsatze der Volkswirtschaftslehre came to influence him significantly. Mises's father died in 1903. Three years later, Mises was awarded his doctorate from the school of law in 1906.[15] From 1913 to 1938, Mises was a professor at the university, during which he mentored Friedrich Hayek.
In the years from 1904 to 1914, Mises attended lectures given by Austrian economist Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk.[16] He graduated in February 1906 (Juris Doctor) and started a career as a civil servant in Austria's financial administration.
After a few months, he left to take a trainee position in a Vienna law firm. During that time, Mises began lecturing on economics and in early 1909 joined the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, serving as economic advisor to the Austrian government until he left Austria in 1934.[17] During World War I, Mises served as a front officer in the Austro-Hungarian artillery and as an economic advisor to the War Department.[18]
Mises was chief economist for the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and was an economic advisor of Engelbert Dollfuss, the austrofascist Austrian Chancellor.[19] Later, Mises was economic advisor to Otto von Habsburg, the Christian democratic politician and claimant to the throne of Austria (which had been legally abolished in 1918 following the Great War).[20] In 1934, Mises left Austria for Geneva, Switzerland, where he was a professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies until 1940. Mises was invited to the Colloque Walter Lippmann, organized in Paris in 1938, and was a founding member of the Mont Pelerin Society in 1947.[21]
While in Switzerland, Mises married Margit Herzfeld Serény, a former actress and widow of Ferdinand Serény. She was the mother of Gitta Sereny.[22]
During World War I, Ludwig von Mises was drafted by the Austrian government, despite being ideologically and morally opposed to the war. Like many who served in the front lines,[23] he rarely spoke about his personal experiences, and even his Memoirs (1940) omits a detailed account of his time in the military. However, he briefly alluded to the harsh realities of war in his seminal work, Human Action (1949):
In Memoirs (1940), the only thing he had to say about the war was how it affected his work:
The same chapter concludes with how he coped with his involuntary servitude fighting as the aggressor in a war he wanted nothing to do with, and includes a quote from Virgil that would go on to become the slogan of the Mises Institute in Alabama:
In 1940, Mises and his wife left Austria, by then a territory of Nazi Germany, and emigrated to New York City in the United States. He had come to the United States under a grant by the Rockefeller Foundation. Like many other classical liberal scholars who fled to the United States, he received support from the William Volker Fund to obtain a position in American universities.[24] Mises became a visiting professor at New York University and held this position from 1945 until his retirement in 1969, though he was not salaried by the university. Businessman and libertarian commentator Lawrence Fertig, a member of the New York University Board of Trustees, funded Mises and his work.[25] [26]
For part of this period, Mises studied currency issues for the Pan-Europa movement, which was led by Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, a fellow New York University faculty member and Austrian exile.[27] In 1947, Mises became one of the founding members of the Mont Pelerin Society.
In 1962, Mises received the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art for political economy[28] at the Austrian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Mises retired from teaching at the age of 87[29] and died on October 10, 1973 at age 92. He is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Grove City College houses the 20,000-page archive of Mises papers and unpublished works.[30] The personal library of Mises was given to Hillsdale College as bequeathed in his will.[31] [32]
At one time, Mises praised the work of writer Ayn Rand, and she generally looked on his work with favor, but the two had a volatile relationship, with strong disagreements for example over the moral basis of capitalism.[33] The two thinkers' disagreement reached a critical point during a dinner conversation where Mises reportedly lost his temper and called Rand a "silly little Jewish girl" after a heated argument, despite himself being Jewish.[34]
As a result of the economic works of Ludwig Von Mises, the Mises Institute was founded in 1982 by Lew Rockwell, Burton Blumert, and Murray Rothbard, following a split between the Cato Institute and Rothbard, who had been one of the founders of the Cato Institute. It was funded by Ron Paul.[35]
The Mises Institute offers thousands of free books written by Ludwig Von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, and other prominent economists in e-book and audiobook format.[36] The Mises Institute also offers a series of summer seminars.[37]
Ludwig von Mises made significant contributions to the field of economics[38] by seeking to integrate the teachings of Carl Menger and Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk into the classical economic framework of his time.[39] He recognized the need to reformulate economic epistemology, particularly in response to the challenges introduced by the subjective value theory and the subjectivity of individual agents.
In 1920, Mises introduced the Economic Calculation Problem as a critique of socialist states which are based on planned economies and renunciations of the price mechanism.[40] In his first article "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth", Mises describes the nature of the price system under capitalism and describes how individual subjective values are translated into the objective information necessary for rational allocation of resources in society. Mises argued the absence of market pricing results in inefficiencies within the economic system because central planners are deprived of the crucial information regarding opportunity costs needed to make informed decisions about resource allocation. He wrote that "rational economic activity is impossible in a socialist commonwealth". Mises developed his critique of socialism more completely in his 1922 book , arguing that the market price system is an expression of praxeology and cannot be replicated by any form of bureaucracy.[41]
Throughout his life[42] Mises argued that only a free market system, where individuals are free to pursue their own interests, can efficiently allocate resources and maximize social welfare.[43] He believed that laissez-faire capitalism is the only system that allows individuals to express their intersubjective appraisals of goods and services in an open market, thereby creating a nexus of price signals based off of the relative exchange ratios between goods. These price signals are essential for coordinating the inherently incomparable[44] subjective valuations that different individuals place on the same external objects.[45] In a market, these subjective rankings are transformed into numerical values—prices—that can be objectively compared.[46] This mechanism enables the continuous alignment of the open-ended coordination problem posed by millions of disparate individual preferences.[47] [48] Unlike a centrally planned system, which assumes a final equilibrium which is to be planned towards,[49] the free market remains in constant flux,[50] continuously adjusting to changes in preferences and conditions.[51] Mises' praxeological approach and reformulation of the economic problem has had a profound impact on the Austrian School of economics.[52] [53]
Mises was also a forerunner in the movement to unite microeconomics and macroeconomics, arguing that macroeconomic phenomena have microeconomic foundations[54] —nearly 50 years before this perspective was widely adopted by mainstream economics.
In his magnum opus Human Action (1949), Mises established praxeology as the foundational methodology for the social sciences,[55] offering a systematic approach to understanding human behavior and decision-making. This work laid the groundwork for a comprehensive economic theory[56] that accounted for the subjective nature of value and the complexity of individual choices, marking a significant departure from the objective models of classical economics.[57] [58] Mises argued that some people resent the burden of freedom, preferring the perceived security of a caste-like system where individual responsibility for one's position in the division of labor is minimized. He believed that people who are content in their position, i.e., who have forgone upward social mobility, may yearn for capitalism to be a rigid caste system, allowing them to blame "the system" or "society" for their low wages or unfulfilled ambitions. Mises also contended that throughout most of human history, wealth was often accumulated through exploitation, war, and conquest.[62] This perspective formed the basis of his economic and social theories, rejecting any form of collectivism that attributed agency to groups rather than to individuals.[73]
His rejection of collectivism led him to be a vocal critic of what he termed "polylogism;" the idea that different groups of people have fundamentally different ways of thinking and thus different logics.[74] He rejected the notion that there could be distinct sciences or truths based on race, class, or nationality, such as "Jewish science" or "German science".[75] Mises believed in the universality of logic and reason, asserting that the principles of economics and science are objective and apply universally, regardless of the cultural or ethnic background of the individuals studying them.[76] This rift in epistemology has led some to argue[84] that Mises attempted to usher in a paradigm shift in the science of economics—but this is not the direction the field as a whole has since gone.[85] [86] [87] [88] Because of this, most academics within the economics community implicitly consider the work which comes out of the Mises Institute and other followers of Mises, to simply not be economics.[89] Mises' followers operate under a different paradigm and follow an opposed rule set to those operating under positivist economics.[90] His objections can be seen as an early precursor to more modern critiques such as the famous Lucas critique.[91]
Ludwig von Mises was a steadfast advocate of liberalism, particularly classical liberalism. He believed that while Marx provided a powerful critique of capitalism, he failed to offer a constructive vision of a socialist society that could be practically implemented.[92] [93] To learn from this mistake, after publishing his lengthy critique of socialism, Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution, in his book Liberalism (1927), Mises articulated a vision of free society rooted in individual liberty, private property, free markets, and limited government coercion. He argued that these principles are essential for creating a peaceful and prosperous society.
Mises advocated for economic non-interventionism[94] and was a staunch anti-imperialist.[95] He viewed the Great War as a watershed moment in human history, arguing that it marked a significant departure from previous conflicts due to the advanced technology employed. His experience in the first World War led to a lifelong obsession of finding a workable doctrine of peace among nations, which at the same time would not ask any individual nation to give up their own self interest. Regarding the birth of total war, Mises wrote:
Marxists Herbert Marcuse and Perry Anderson as well as German writer Claus-Dieter Krohn accused Mises of writing approvingly of Italian fascism, especially for its suppression of leftist elements, in his 1927 book Liberalism.[96] In 2009, economist J. Bradford DeLong and sociologist Richard Seymour repeated the accusation.[97]
Mises, in his 1927 book Liberalism, wrote:[98]
Mises biographer Jörg Guido Hülsmann says that critics who suggest that Mises supported fascism are "absurd" as he notes that the full quote describes fascism as dangerous. He notes that Mises said it was a "fatal error" to think that it was more than an "emergency makeshift" against up and coming communism and socialism as exemplified by the Bolsheviks in Russia and the surging communists of Germany. Hülsmann writes in Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism that Mises had been a card-carrying member of the Fatherland Front party and that this was "probably mandatory for all employees of public and semi-public organizations."[99]
However, this paragraph is also in keeping with a theme that runs through his work: he consistently refrained from imputing bad intentions to those he disagreed with, regardless of how fascistic or homicidal their policy outcomes were. He took pain to more than once explicitly acknowledge the good intentions of totalitarians and socialists of all walks, such as when he wrote:
Mises, in his 1927 book Liberalism, also wrote of fascism:
In his earlier work, Socialism (1922), Mises also made a similar remark with more context, saying that Mussolini did his best to prop up Austria-Hungary as a means of protecting Italian speaking minorities, but regardless concludes that he was one the most wretched figures in history:
In regards to Nazism, Mises called on the Allies in his 1944 book Omnipotent Government to "smash Nazism" and to "fight desperately until the Nazi power is completely broken".[100]
In his Notes and recollections, Mises wrote of his experience being personally persecuted by the Nazis for his attacks on Italian Fascism and the National Socialist party:
Economic historian Bruce Caldwell wrote that in the mid-20th century, with the ascendance of positivism and Keynesianism, Mises came to be regarded by many as the "archetypal 'unscientific' economist".[101] In a 1957 review of his book The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, The Economist said of Mises: "Professor von Mises has a splendid analytical mind and an admirable passion for liberty; but as a student of human nature he is worse than null and as a debater he is of Hyde Park standard".[102] Conservative commentator Whittaker Chambers published a similarly negative review of that book in the National Review, stating that Mises's thesis that anti-capitalist sentiment was rooted in "envy" epitomized "know-nothing conservatism" at its "know-nothingest".[103] More recent commenters, such as Tyler Cowen of George Mason University, have listed it alongside Socialism (1922), and Liberalism (1927) as one of the most important books of the 20th century, despite describing Human Action (1949) as "cranky and dogmatic".[104] In the same blog post, Cowen states that:
Scholar Scott Scheall called economist Terence Hutchison "the most persistent critic of Mises's apriorism",[105] starting in Hutchison's 1938 book The Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory and in later publications such as his 1981 book The Politics and Philosophy of Economics: Marxians, Keynesians, and Austrians. Scheall noted that Friedrich Hayek, later in his life (after Mises died), also expressed reservations about Mises's apriorism, such as in a 1978 interview where Hayek said that he "never could accept the... almost eighteenth-century rationalism in his [Mises's] argument".
In a 1978 interview, Hayek said about Mises's book Socialism:
Economist Milton Friedman considered Mises inflexible in his thinking, but added that Mises's difficult life, persecution by Nazis, and lack of acceptance by academia are the likely culprits:
Economist Murray Rothbard, who studied under Mises, agreed he was uncompromising, but disputes reports of his abrasiveness. In his words, Mises was "unbelievably sweet, constantly finding research projects for students to do, unfailingly courteous, and never bitter" about the discrimination he received at the hands of the economic establishment of his time.[106]
After Mises died, his widow Margit quoted a passage that he had written about Benjamin Anderson. She said it best described Mises's own personality: In Critique of Economic Reason, André Gorz addresses the limitations of dominant economic theories, including both neoliberalism and classical liberalism, which he argues are based on a narrow understanding of human motivation focused on self-interest and material wealth. Gorz critiques the reduction of all human activities and aspirations to economic rationality, highlighting the need to consider a broader range of human needs and values, such as social relationships, community, and personal fulfillment.
Critics more broadly argue that praxeology's reliance on a priori reasoning and rejection of empirical methods limit its ability to test and validate economic theories. This critique is grounded in the belief that economic theories should be subject to Popperian falsification, as seen in mainstream economics, which emphasizes data-driven analysis and the use of econometrics.[107] Even within the Austrian tradition, there are debates about the extent and application of praxeology.[108] For example, Friedrich Hayek, while sympathetic to Austrian principles, was more open to incorporating empirical evidence and saw limitations in a strictly a priori approach.[109] In his book The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason, Hayek critiques the overconfidence in the application of scientific methods to social sciences, including economics. While he does not explicitly target praxeology, his arguments suggest a more skeptical view of purely deductive methodologies. Hayek emphasizes the complexity of social phenomena and the limitations of any one method, advocating for a more pluralistic approach to economic inquiry.
The Austrian School's methodological differences, particularly its reluctance to engage with quantitative methods, have led to its marginalization within the broader economics discipline. This isolation is a result of the school's focus on verbal logic and theoretical purity, which many mainstream economists view as insufficiently rigorous.[110] Other commenters such as Eric Weinstein and Peter Thiel have remarked about the broader issue of dogmatism within Austrian economics. Weinstein emphasized the importance of being open to new ideas and criticized the tendency within Austrian economics to dismiss other methodologies.[111] While the Austrian's prosaic approach provides valuable insights into the decision-making process, econometrically-minded critics argue that it lacks the predictive power of other economic models that rely on more objective measures. This subjectivism can make it challenging to formulate generalizable laws or predictions.
Books
Book reviews
In his 1956 book The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, Ludwig von Mises explored the roots of intellectual opposition to the free market, particularly in American society.[60]
Friends and students of Mises in Europe included Wilhelm Röpke and Alfred Müller-Armack (advisors to German chancellor Ludwig Erhard), Jacques Rueff (monetary advisor to Charles de Gaulle), Gottfried Haberler (later a professor at Harvard), Lionel, Lord Robbins (of the London School of Economics), Italian President Luigi Einaudi, and Leonid Hurwicz, recipient of the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.[63] Economist and political theorist Friedrich Hayek first came to know Mises while working as his subordinate at a government office dealing with Austria's post-World War I debt. While toasting Mises at a party in 1956, Hayek said: "I came to know him as one of the best educated and informed men I have ever known". Mises's seminars in Vienna fostered lively discussion among established economists there. The meetings were also visited by other important economists who happened to be traveling through Vienna.
At his New York University seminar and at informal meetings at his apartment, Mises attracted college and high school students who had heard of his European reputation. They listened while he gave carefully prepared lectures from notes.[64] [65] [66]
Ludwig von Mises acknowledged that, by the time of his writing, many core concepts from the Austrian School of Economics had been integrated into mainstream economic thought.[67] He noted that the distinctions between the Austrian School and other economic traditions had blurred, making the label "Austrian" more of a historical reference than a marker of a distinct, contemporary doctrine.[68] This integration occurred as concepts like marginal utility, opportunity cost, and the importance of subjective value became widely accepted among economists.[69]
Ludwig von Mises was a prominent advocate of methodological individualism, a principle that asserts all social phenomena result from the actions and decisions of individuals.[70] He believed that only individuals act, and thus, collective entities such as nations, classes, or races do not possess independent agency.[71]
Ludwig von Mises is credited[76] with transforming praxeology into a comprehensive framework for understanding economics and human behavior, making it central to the Austrian School of economics. He provided it with a clear definition and methodology, focusing on the logical structure of human action and choice. Thus, while the term existed before Mises, he is largely responsible for its current understanding and significance in economic theory. Mises argued that economics is a branch of praxeology, which studies the implications of the fact that individuals act purposefully.[77] Mises maintained that economic laws are derived from the self-evident axiom that humans engage in purposeful behavior to achieve desired ends.[78] [79] [80] This approach led him to oppose empirical and statistical methods as primary tools in economic theory, arguing that these could not establish economic laws due to the uniqueness of historical events.[81]
In defense of his teleological understanding of human action, he highlighted the difference in using physics to study inanimate objects, and its application to the study of an introspective being which reflects upon and changes its reactions to receiving the same stimulus twice:
He would eventually go into enormous detail defending this distinction in his work Epistemological Problems of Economics (1933), Theory and History (1957), and again in The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science (1962) which included further explication such as:
This perspective placed him in contrast with the positivist approach, which emphasizes empirical data and observation as the foundation of scientific knowledge.[82]
