This essay uses evidence of the context from which Friedman wrote The Methodology of Positive Economics to call into question the standard interpretation of the essay's central message. The standard interpretation gives excessive weight to the choice between testing via assumptions and testing...

This paper revisits Keynes's liquidity preference theory as it evolved from the Treatise on Money to The General Theory and after, with a view of assessing the theory's ongoing relevance and applicability to issues of both monetary theory and policy. Contrary to the neoclassical quot;special...

The thesis of this paper is that Keynes wrote A Treatise on Probability contrasting his view to the frequentist theory, systematised by John Venn, which denied to probability any sort of utility in decision theory. Keynes's problem was of finding an alternative theory to be utilised as a guide...

In his 1931 unpublished ‘Surplus Product' manuscript Sraffa used an open-closed distinction to explain the relationship between the ‘economic field' and distribution. This paper examines Sraffa's thinking in this regard, and shows how it allowed him to resolve a problem he encountered in his...

This paper uses the theory of complex systems as a conceptual lens through which to compare the work of Friedrich Hayek and Vincent and Elinor Ostrom. It is well known that, from the 1950s onwards, Hayek conceptualised the market as a complex adaptive system. It is argued in this paper that,...

James Buchanan argued that Tullock was a “natural born” economist. In this paper, we explore the notion that Tullock, more appropriately, was a “natural born Misesian.” Characterizing Tullock as such, we ask the following question: was Gordon Tullock also an economic imperialist,...

We reply to Scott Scheall's What is so Extreme About Mises's Extreme Apriorism. We restate the setting of the topic of our paper and we argue that Scheall is not providing a clear distinction between (a) Mises the person and his epistemological position and (b) praxeology and economics. We also...

An under-appreciated aspect of F.A. Hayek's mature views about rationality is the inter-relation of the “pure logic of choice” and rule-following behavior. Sometimes it is asserted that Hayek abandoned his earlier understanding of individual rationality and replaced it with a completely...

James M. Buchanan revisited his mentor's famous 1923 essay “The Ethics of Competition” in an essay written for the centenary celebration of Frank Knight's birth in 1985. Buchanan's paper focused on the first section of Knight's essay, and outlined why it provided an inadequate criticism of a...