METHODOLOGICAL INDIVIDUALISM IN CARL MENGER: AN EVALUATION

Year 1998, Volume: 16 Issue: 1-2, 47 - 69, 31.12.1998

Hüseyin Özel

Abstract

Although
Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian school af economics, is known as a
leading figure in the "marginal revolution,' his views an the methodology
of economics deserve even more attention. In particular, the two very
foundations of the Austrian school, namely subjectivism and methodological
individualism, directly come from Menger. In this paper, after briefly pointing
out the subjectivist elements in Menger's economic analysis, I examine Menger*s
views on the methodology of economics, which takes methodological individualism
as the main basis, and evaluate both his version of individualism and one of
the attempts, made by Ludwig Lachmann, to provide rigorous foundations to
Menger's arguments, It is argued in this paper that both of these versions
exhibit the same inconsistency between methodological individualism and the
hypothesis of unintended consequences of intentional human behavior, which has
generally been used as an argument in favor of the methodological
individualistic social theory.

Keywords

Carl menger, methodological individualism, austrian economics school

References

• Addleson, Mark, "Radical Subjectivism' and the Language of Austrian Economics," in Kirzner (1986), pp. 1-15.