Philosophers of Capitalism

Menger, Mises, Rand, and Beyond

Contributions by Walter Block, Samuel Bostaph, Ricardo F. Crespo, Jeffrey M. Herbener, Richard C. B. Johnsson, Tibor R. Machan, Douglas B. Rasmussen, Murray N. Rothbard, Chris Matthew Sciabarra, Larry J. Sechrest, Barry Smith, Gloria Zúñiga Edited by Edward W. Younkins

Publication date:

10 November 2005

Length of book:

376 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739110768

Philosophers of Capitalism provides an interdisciplinary approach, attempting to discover the feasibility of an integration of Austrian Economics and Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. In the first section of the book, Edward W. Younkins supplies essays presenting the essential ideas of Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, and Ayn Rand. Building upon these essential ideas, the second portion of the book brings together scholarly perspectives from top academics, analyzing Menger, von Mises, and Rand. The third and final section of the book looks toward the future and the possibility of combining and extending the insights of these champions of a free society, emphasizing how the errors, omissions, and oversights made by one theorist can effectively be negated or compensated for by integrating insights from one or more of the others. Featuring a list of recommended reading for the major ideas and theorists discussed, Philosophers of Capitalism is an essential book for both philosophers and economists.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Part 2 Essential Ideas
Chapter 3 Carl Menger's Austrian Aristotelianism
Chapter 4 Misesian Praxeology as the Path to Progress
Chapter 5 Ayn Rand's Philosophy for Living on Earth
Part 6 Scholarly Perspectives
Chapter 7 The Methodological Debate Between Carl Menger and the German Historicists
Chapter 8 Truth in Economic Subjectivism
Chapter 9 Ludwig von Mises and the Paradigm for our Age
Chapter 10 Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian School of Economics
Chapter 11 Rand on Obligation and Value
Chapter 12 The Growing Industry in Ayn Rand Scholarship
Chapter 13 Aristotle, Menger, Mises: An Essay in the Metaphysics of Economics
Chapter 14 The Libertarian Minimal State? A Critique of the Views of Nozick, Levin, and Rand
Chapter 15 Austrian "Subjectivism" vs. Objectivism
Chapter 16 Reappraising Austrian Economics' Basic Tenets in the Light of Aristotelian Ideas
Chapter 17 Praxeology, Economics, and Law: Issues and Implications
Chapter 18 Reason in Economics versus Ethics
Part 19 The Future
Chapter 20 Toward the Development of a Paradigm for a Free Society

In his thought-provoking follow-up to Capitalism and Commerce, Edward Younkins makes a compelling case that the Austrian value-free defense of capitalism and the moral arguments of Aristotle and Ayn Rand are compatible and complimentary. He shows persuasively that the study of human action and of its grounding in natural law will reveal the intimate connection between economic and moral principles.