A Side Note on Mises
Jason Kuznicki on Dec 19th 2006
Whenever you correspond vigorously about a topic, GMail will notice. It will then put banner ads up around your letters, notifying you of websites that have presumably paid for the privilege of appearing there. Like this one, which is silly:
Ludwig von Mises claimed to be deductive but, in the mathematical sense of the word, he was not. Ludwig von Mises was not a mathematician, nor was Friedrich Hayek or Murray Rothbard. Victor Aguilar is a mathematician and he is offering a $1000 economics scholarship to any praxeology adherent who can defend capital-based macroeconomics (Hayekian Triangles) against his Critique of Austrian Economics. Critiques and rebuttals are how science advances. Roger Garrison, Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Walter Block (representing Austrian economics for the Ludwig von Mises Institute) are afraid of criticism, but you can still try that is, if you really believe in the deductive economics of Ludwig von Mises.
I’ve had my arguments with Hoppe before (and do I really have to link them?), but it’s fully possible for both sides of an argument to be wrong.
The key to all fanaticisms, I think, is the vigorous welding of a truism to one’s personal quirks and eccentricities. Yes, it is undoubtedly true that science advances through critiques and rebuttals. But it is not true that science advances through bullying, or ad hominem, or through obviously hostile offers of spurious reward money. Appointing a jury… of Victor Aguilar… to judge the merits of the theories… of Victor Aguilar… with $1,000… of Victor Aguilar’s money at stake… well, it doesn’t take an economist to chuckle at that one.
I should note, in fairness, that James Randi has offered similar reward money in the past. While I tend to agree with Randi’s worldview, I have to say that he is often prone to defending it in what seem to me doubtful ways as well.
Filed in The Boardroom
Everybody who searches for “Mises” will get that as a result. Victor Aguilar will now hunt you down :-)
Black Bloke –
I’m not too worried. Arguably, the above constitutes a pretty good refutation of his ideas. Maybe he’ll give me that $1,000 scholarship.
I do agree with you that Randi has a tendency to defend his arguments in doubtful ways, but he’s gone through quite a bit of procedure and legalese to insure that his contest doesn’t boil down to James Randi deciding who gets James Randi’s money.
For what it’s worth, VIctor Aguilar’s reward $$ wasn’t “spurious.” I wrote a response to his critique of Austrian capital & interest theory, and he did indeed pay me $1000. (You can see my response at his site.)
[...] Victor Aguilar v. Austrian Economics Some weeks ago I commented on what I thought was a spurious offer by mathematician Victor Aguilar, who promised $1,000 to anyone who could defend Austrian macroeconomics against the critiques he made of it. Back then I scoffed as follows: Appointing a jury… of Victor Aguilar… to judge the merits of the theories… of Victor Aguilar… with $1,000… of Victor Aguilar’s money at stake… well, it doesn’t take an economist to chuckle at that one. [...]
Haha, I totally missed this when commenting on the story below!
*facepalms*