Ludwig von Mises held distinctive and original views about the philosophical foundations of economics. He maintained that economics forms part of praxeology, a science of human action deductively derived from the self-evident axiom that man acts. He presented this view in the first part of Human Action, and understanding it is essential to knowledge of Misesian economics.
Many readers, though, find what Mises says there hard to understand. This course has as its main aim to help you to grasp Mises’s meaning. If you complete this course, you will be able to follow the main lines of Mises’s ideas in this section of Human Action and his other philosophical works, including Epistemological Problems of Economics, Theory and History, and The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science. Also to be considered will be criticisms and defenses of these views, but the course will concentrate on explaining Mises in a way that you will find easy to follow.
Mises’s contributions to epistemology were not confined to his work on the nature of economic knowledge. He also had original and important things to say about historical knowledge, and the course will explore this topic in detail.
If you find the philosophical sections of Mises’s books puzzling, you may find this course helpful. The course lasts five weeks and includes weekly lectures, assigned readings from Mises’s books, and weekly quizzes.
Dr. Gordon discusses his plans for this course in his article, Mises’s Epistemology.
Here are the weekly topics for the course
- Week 1: Praxeology: A Commonsense Method of Economics
- Week 2: Mises versus the German Historical School and the Logical Positivists
- Week 3: Mises and the Philosophy of History
- Week 4: Mises versus Rand
- Week 5: The Ultimate Given, Determinism, and Ethics.
Live Class Sessions
The lectures are broadcast live over the internet, and students will receive a special access code to join the sessions. Students will be able to ask the professor questions via internet forum posts, and the professor will respond via video. Live attendance is not required; recordings of all live sessions will be made available to students. The weekly lectures will be Thursdays at 9:00 pm EDT.
Final Grade and Certificate of Completion:
The final grade will depend on quizzes. The Mises Academy is currently not accredited, but this course is worth 3 credits in our own internal system. Feel free to ask your school to accept Mises Academy credits. You will receive a digital Certificate of Completion for this course if you take it for a grade, and a Certificate of Participation if you take it on a paid-audit basis.
Refund Policy
If you drop the course during its first week (7 calendar days), you will receive a full refund, minus a $25 processing fee.
If you drop the course during its second week, you will receive a half refund.
No refunds will be granted following the second week.
Computer Requirements
Video Lecture Sessions
Operating System
Mac OS X 10.4 or higher
Windows XP SP2 or higher
Linux
Connection
Broadband 2Mb+
Browser
Safari 2, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3.0 or higher
Course Readings, Discussions and Assignments
Operating System
Windows 98 or higher
Mac OS 10.1 or higher
Linux
Connection
56k V.90 modem or higher
Browser
Firefox 3.0 or higher is recommended for both Mac and PC.
Free download: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox
Opera and Safari will not show built-in html editor in Moodle.
Internet Explorer can potentially cause errors.
