Small quibble: I think it’s unfair to many Austrians to imply that their school inherently eschews the type of mathematical formalisms that many prominent Austrians did, in fact, reject. Or at least, insofar as they do so, it’s based on more than simply saying that the map doesn’t reflect the territory, and therefore we must throw it out—they make elaborate arguments about how the map’s systematic inaccuracies make it a poor representation of the territory. (Apologies if I’m using the map/territory metaphor poorly.)
Admittedly, this opinion goes against what seems to be reflected on the almighty Wikipedia, and I realize that pinning down the essential features of a school of thought is a pursuit which is fraught with problems, but my impression is that there are a substantial number of Austrians who do not reject modeling per se (as was the case of Hayek), and labeling this tendency as a deviation from Austrian thought strikes me as a No True Scotsman argument. Perhaps someone more familiar with the Austrian school could correct me on this, however.
It may be unfair to lump the specific fallacy presented above as the essence of Austrian economics, or as something its true believers follow. But there undoubtedly is a strain of dedicated Mises/Rothbard followers who insist on it, and these are the Austrians I’m criticizing. I’ll refer to this link again. Many major Austrians are ready to pounce all over Hayek at a moment’s notice.
P.S. Hey, gonna go ahead and guess you’re the same Peter Twieg from my class. This is Tim McGowan.
Oh, hey Tim. :D Not particularly surprised to see other classmates in these parts, but it’s still a neat occurrence.
And of course I recognize the dogmatic tendencies of the Mises Institute crowd, but I guess my broader worry is that their particular style becomes conflated with Austrian economics in general. It’s my impression that these failings aren’t recognized in GMU’s self-identified Austrian faculty, but I could be wrong.
Personally, I’m not too familiar with that group of Austrians other than that they typically claim to get everything from Mises, and this may also be wrong. So, yes, what I said may only apply to the Mises Institute crowd.
I know that some Austrians don’t reject the formalism. When I was at the Mises Institute, Block called Lachmann a “calculus Austrian.” I should have been a bit more clear, I tend to use the term Austrian to refer to those who are Austrians in the methodological sense. The line is, of course, fuzzy, but there are some clear cases of Austrian and non-Austrian on this definition.
Or at least, insofar as they do so, it’s based on more than simply saying that the map doesn’t reflect the territory, and therefore we must throw it out—they make elaborate arguments about how the map’s systematic inaccuracies make it a poor representation of the territory.
My understanding of the Austrians is that using a map at all is intellectually sinful. They want to study the territory, not some representation of it. However, this intrigues me. Do you know of any relevant citations or links?
Small quibble: I think it’s unfair to many Austrians to imply that their school inherently eschews the type of mathematical formalisms that many prominent Austrians did, in fact, reject. Or at least, insofar as they do so, it’s based on more than simply saying that the map doesn’t reflect the territory, and therefore we must throw it out—they make elaborate arguments about how the map’s systematic inaccuracies make it a poor representation of the territory. (Apologies if I’m using the map/territory metaphor poorly.)
Admittedly, this opinion goes against what seems to be reflected on the almighty Wikipedia, and I realize that pinning down the essential features of a school of thought is a pursuit which is fraught with problems, but my impression is that there are a substantial number of Austrians who do not reject modeling per se (as was the case of Hayek), and labeling this tendency as a deviation from Austrian thought strikes me as a No True Scotsman argument. Perhaps someone more familiar with the Austrian school could correct me on this, however.
It may be unfair to lump the specific fallacy presented above as the essence of Austrian economics, or as something its true believers follow. But there undoubtedly is a strain of dedicated Mises/Rothbard followers who insist on it, and these are the Austrians I’m criticizing. I’ll refer to this link again. Many major Austrians are ready to pounce all over Hayek at a moment’s notice.
P.S. Hey, gonna go ahead and guess you’re the same Peter Twieg from my class. This is Tim McGowan.
Oh, hey Tim. :D Not particularly surprised to see other classmates in these parts, but it’s still a neat occurrence.
And of course I recognize the dogmatic tendencies of the Mises Institute crowd, but I guess my broader worry is that their particular style becomes conflated with Austrian economics in general. It’s my impression that these failings aren’t recognized in GMU’s self-identified Austrian faculty, but I could be wrong.
Personally, I’m not too familiar with that group of Austrians other than that they typically claim to get everything from Mises, and this may also be wrong. So, yes, what I said may only apply to the Mises Institute crowd.
I know that some Austrians don’t reject the formalism. When I was at the Mises Institute, Block called Lachmann a “calculus Austrian.” I should have been a bit more clear, I tend to use the term Austrian to refer to those who are Austrians in the methodological sense. The line is, of course, fuzzy, but there are some clear cases of Austrian and non-Austrian on this definition.
My understanding of the Austrians is that using a map at all is intellectually sinful. They want to study the territory, not some representation of it. However, this intrigues me. Do you know of any relevant citations or links?