The Economic Point Of View: An Essay In The History Of Economic Thought

by Israel M. Kirzner

The Economic Point of View is the inaugural volume in Liberty Fund new Collected Works of Israel M. Kirzner series. This work established Kirzner as a careful and meticulous scholar of economics. No other living economist is so closely associated with the Austrian School of economics as Israel M. Kirzner, professor emeritus of economics at New York University. He has been a leader of the generation of Austrian School economists following Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek.

In The Economic Point of View, Kirzner explores the basic ideas around which the entire body of economic thought has revolved for some two centuries. He explains how the �economic point of view� emerged in the development of economic science since the eighteenth century and through it, the concepts of purpose, subjectivism, and rationality. Kirzner�s incomparable ability to navigate through the core ideas of economics helps the reader become progressively familiar with the history of the discipline and its definition.

Within the seven chapters, Kirzner discusses such subjects as the science of wealth and welfare; the nature of economic science and the significance of macroeconomics; and the sciences as human action, including a section on praxeology and its relationship to the economic point of view. As Mises writes in his foreword to the volume, �Dr. Kirzner�s book . . . is a very valuable contribution to the history of ideas, describing the march of economics from a science of wealth to a science of human action. . . . �Every economist�and for that matter everybody interested in problems of general epistemology�will read with great profit Doctor Kirzner�s analyses.�

Peter J. Boettke is the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism at the Mercatus Center and a University Professor of economics at George Mason University. His publications include Why Perestroika Failed: The Economics and Politics of Socialist Transformation and Calculation and Coordination. Since 1998 he has been the editor of the Review of Austrian Economics.

Fr�d�ric Sautet is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center and a member of the graduate faculty at George Mason University.

Genres: Economics, Philosophy

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Leading economist of the Austrian School.

Wikipedia Bio

Reviews

[Pedro Almeida Jorge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommended book, although not an easy reading for beginners. Kirzner provides much food for thought and in fact I ended up writing a whole 20 page paper for my Masters course inspired by his discussions: or, rather, inspired by a point of view which I believe Kirzner could have explored: the "housekeeping" point of view.
The origins of the word "economy" can be found in the Ancient Greek concept of "oikonomia", which means "to manage one's household or estate". This "housekeeping" perspective can be found in many modern writers, such as Wicksell, Wicksteed, Cassel or, to some extent, Wieser. I find it surprising that these were not discussed by Kirzner in this context. In fact, the words "efficiency", "household", "housekeeping" or the names "Wieser", "Cassel" and "Wicksell" are not found in the book's Index... So that's why I removed one star from the rating.

Fun fact: Although Kirzner only became a student of Mises some years later, there is first hand evidence that in 1950 Ludwig von Mises suggested that his NYU seminar students should write a book on the evolution of the economic "point of view" from the science of wealth until the science of human action... I don't know whether it was on purpose or not, but it seems Kirzner ended up fulfilling that task...

See: https://mises.org/library/misess-sugg...

[Tommy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The earlier sections aren't particularly bad but the entire exposition of "praxeology" herein isn't exactly getting at what real constraints are being explained or how. The physical processes, throughput and such, which he seems to suggest are perfectly subjectable to various forms of that dreaded "scientism" and "positivist" analysis, or is it the cognitive processes which create imaginable choices which presumably aren't reducible to anything? If any of this "a priori science" is "clear" it doesn't seem useful.

... Stones dislodged from a hillside by the elements and hurtling down on the unsuspecting traveller in the valley are part of a different “event” than stones hurled with intent by men waiting in ambush. The latter are hurled with purpose; they are—in this case literally—aimed by human beings. Stone-throwing by human beings is something that the scientist can in part “explain” by reference to an element not present in natural phenomena, viz., the conscious aim of the thrower. Praxeology takes this very element as its point of departure; it finds human actions amenable to analysis in that they bear the imprint of a constraint imposed by chosen goals.

...There is place for a distinct science of economics only because the teleological quality of action makes possible a unique kind of “explanation.” The theorems of economics are derived for praxeology exclusively on the basis of the purposefulness of human behavior. Other determinants of behavior—heredity, environment, and the like—are on a completely different level of “explanation”; as such, they belong to other disciplines; they have no place in a “pure” economic science.

...The considerations set forth in the previous section are sufficient to make clear what writers have had in mind when they have characterized economics as an a priori science. This description of economic knowledge has been repeatedly misunderstood; it has been repeatedly taken out of context and held up for ridicule.32 But the matter is essentially logical and clear.

[Mike Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kirzner's essay is a great detailing of the history of economic history from a very particular and rarely explored angle - the methodology that underpins economic theory. His Austrian tendencies do come through, but it's against what he lays out on economic theory. Definitely a critical piece of reading that serves as a useful expansion of basic ideas of history of thought in economics. Will be a reread for me.

[Tyler Groenendal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is primarily a history of economic theory and methodology, with an analysis by Kirzner layered on top of it. Kirzner begins his analysis by looking at various conceptions on what the "economic point of view" actually WAS throughout history. He groups these into two broad classes: Type A and Type B.

Type A definitions "consider economics as investigating a particular department of affairs". Type B definitions "see it as concerned with a particular aspect of affairs in general." Kirzner places most earlier conceptions of the economic point of view in Type A. He limits his analysis to two particular Type B definitions, that of Lionel Robbins (economizing scarce means to ends) and the Misesian praxeological definition (the economic point of view is the study of human action).

The Economic Point of View is dense. Kirzner assumes a strong background in the history of economic thought and some extensive knowledge of epistemological and methodological problems in economics. I think Kirzner is fair to other points of view, but he clearly supports the definition proposed by Mises, his teacher.

Despite its density, The Economic Point of View is a worthwhile read. If you're at all interested in methodological issues, or economic thought in general, it's worth your time.

[Yogy TheBear · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the students of economics,self thought or in a university, the essential question of what is the definition of the subject, what is the nature and the object of study of economics, where do we put this science in relation with the others; this question comes very late, if it comes at all in the study of the student and even proffesor.
This book attempts to address al of this questions and it tackes us on a journey through the history of economics.
We start from definitions of type "A" that consider the object of study as being material wealth, and we end to type "B" definitions of the type of Robbins and Mises who consider economics the study of human action.

[Vadim · Rating 4 out of 5]

В этом коротком и ясном эссе о сути экономического образа мышления Израэл Кирцнер показывает предмет экономики во всей его широте. Экономика это не наука о богатстве, и не наука о тех, кто к нему стремится, это не наука о торговле и не наука о денежных отношениях. Нет, экономика -- это наука о том, как они планируют и действуют для воплощения своих замыслов. Когда лавочник не хочет нанимать инородца, когда женщина рожает ребенка, когда школьник прогуливает урок, экономист найдет в этом предмет для экономического рассуждения.

[Sean Hackbarth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kirzner looks at how economists viewed the subject of their study through the centuries. He argues that treating economics as a subset of a larger study of human action (praxeology) is the best approach.