Table Of ContentMind, Society, and Human Action
Economics originated as a branch of the humane studies that was concerned with
trying to understand how some societies flourish while others stagnate, and also
how once-flourishing societies could come to stagnate. Over the major part of
the twentieth century, however, economists mostly turned away from these
humane and societal concerns by importing mechanistic ideas from nineteenth-
century physics. This book seeks to show how that original humane and social
focus can be renewed.
The many particular topics the book examines can be traced to two central ideas.
Firstly, that economic theory, like physics, requires two distinct theoretical
frameworks. One treats qualities that are invariant across time and place: this is
the domain of equilibrium theory. The other treats the internal generation of
change in societies through entrepreneurial action that continually transforms the
ecology of enterprises that constitutes a society. Secondly, economic theory is
treated as a genuine social science and not a science of rationality writ large. The
book also explores ways in which life in society is understood differently once
economics is treated as a social science.
The book is aimed at professional audiences who work with economic theory
and who find that much of the hyper-formality that comprises economic theory
these days fails to make reasonable contact with reality. It will be of interest to
sociologists, political scientists, and researchers in law, public policy, Austrian
economics, evolutionary economics, institutional economics and political
economy.
Richard E. Wagner is Holbert L. Harris Professor of Economics at George
Mason University, Fairfax, USA.
Routledge foundations of the Market Economy
Edited by Mario J. Rizzo
New York University
and
Lawrence H. White
University of Missouri at St. Louis
A central theme in this series is the importance of understanding and assessing
the market economy from a perspective broader than the static economics of
perfect competition and Pareto optimality. Such a perspective sees markets as
causal processes generated by the preferences, expectations and beliefs of
economic agents. The creative acts of entrepreneurship that uncover new
information about preferences, prices and technology are central to these
processes with respect to their ability to promote the discovery and use of
knowledge in society.
The market economy consists of a set of institutions that facilitate voluntary
cooperation and exchange among individuals. These institutions include the
legal and ethical framework as well as more narrowly “economic” patterns of
social interaction. Thus the law, legal institutions and cultural and ethical norms,
as well as ordinary business practices and monetary phenomena, fall within the
analytical domain of the economist.
Previous books in this series include:
1. The Meaning of Market Process
Essays in the development of modern Austrian Economics Israel M. Kirzner
2. Prices and Knowledge
A market-process perspective
Esteban F. Thomas
3. Keynes’ General Theory of Interest
A reconsideration
Fiona C. Maclachlan
4. Laissez-Faire Banking
Kevin Dowd
5. Expectations and the Meaning of Institutions
Essays in economics by Ludwig Lachmann
Edited by Don Lavoie
6. Perfect Competition and the Transformation of Economics
Frank M. Machovec
7. Entrepreneurship and the Market Process
An enquiry into the growth of knowledge
David Harper
8. Economics of Time and Ignorance
Gerald O’Driscoll and Mario J. Rizzo
9. Dynamics of the Mixed Economy
Toward a theory of interventionism
Sanford Ikeda
10. Neoclassical Microeconomic Theory
The founding of Austrian vision
A. M. Endres
11. The Cultural Foundations of Economic Development
Urban female entrepreneurship in Ghana
Emily Chamlee-Wright
12. Risk and Business Cycles
New and old Austrian perspectives
Tyler Cowen
13. Capital in Disequilibrium
The role of capital in a changing world
Peter Lewin
14. The Driving Force of the Market
Essays in Austrian economics
Israel Kirzner
15. An Entrepreneurial Theory of the Firm
Frédéric Sautet
16. Time and Money
The macroeconomics of capital structure
Roger Garrison
17. Microfoundations and Macroeconomics
An Austrian perspective
Steven Horwitz
18. Money and the Market
Essays on free banking
Kevin Dowd
19. Calculation and Coordination
Essays on socialism and transitional political economy Peter Boettke
20. Keynes & Hayek
The money economy
G. R. Steele
21. The Constitution of Markets
Essays in political economy
Viktor J. Vanberg
22. Foundations of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development
David A. Harper
23. Markets, Information and Communication
Austrian perspectives on the Internet economy
Edited by Jack Birner & Pierre Garrouste
24. The Constitution of Liberty in the Open Economy
Lüder Gerken
25. Liberalism Against Liberalism
Javier Aranzadi
26. Money and Markets
Essays in honor of Leland B. Yeager
Edited by Roger Koppl
27. Entrepreneurship and Economic Progress
Randall G. Holcombe
28. The Theory of Dynamic Efficiency
Jesús Huerta De Soto
29. Mind, Society, and Human Action
Time and knowledge in a theory of social economy
Richard E. Wagner
Mind, Society, and Human Action
Time and knowledge in a theory of social economy
Richard E. Wagner
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
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© 2010 Richard E. Wagner
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wagner, Richard E.
Mind, society, and human action: time and knowledge in a theory of
social-economy / Richard E. Wagner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Economics—Sociological aspects. 2. Economics—Political
aspects. I. Title.
HM548.W34 2010
306.3—dc22 2009032979
ISBN 0-203-85840-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10:0-415-77996-0 (hbk)
ISBN10:0-203-85840-9 (ebk)
ISBN13:978-0-415-77996-8 (hbk)
ISBN13:978-0-203-85840-0 (ebk)
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Contents
List of figures
List of tables
Preface
1 Social economy: some preliminaries on scope and method
2 Society, property, and human action
3 Economizing, calculation, and purposive action
4 Planning, production, and entrepreneurial action
5 Markets and prices as emergent patterns of human interaction
6 Competition and its social organization
7 From micro to macro through an emergent ecology of enterprises
8 Politics, markets, and political economy: entangled, not separated
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Figures
2.1 Comparative statics of common and private property
4.1 Entrepreneurial plans as directed graphs
5.1 Theory of exchange (static)
5.2 Theory of markets (emergent dynamics)
5.3 Statics, dynamics, and market theory
7.1 A plan as a directed graph
7.2 A macro ecology of plans
7.3 Abstract representation of centralized vs. emergent macro
7.4 Two models of monetary expansion
7.5 Credit expansion and structure of production
8.1 Hierarchical political economy
8.2 Polycentric political economy
8.3 Catallactical relationships in political economy
Description:Economics originated as a branch of the humane studies that was concerned with trying to understand how some societies flourish while others stagnate, and also how once-flourishing societies could come to stagnate. Over the major part of the 20th century, however, economists mostly turned away from
