Relation of Carl Menger's philosophy of economics to Auguste Comte's positivism

Alexandru Popovici ()
Additional contact information
Alexandru Popovici: Romanian-American University in Bucharest (Romania)

The Journal of Philosophical Economics, 2022, vol. 15, issue 1, 158-195

Abstract: The conception of the founder of the Austrian School, in his book on the philosophy of social sciences, has been described, by the supporters of this school, as a total methodological individualism, upholding the absolute specificity of these sciences to those of nature, and as rejecting the use of mathematics in economics. In fact, the human individual was, for Carl Menger, only the fundamental element of socioeconomic structures. Economic theory was to be inspired by the "atomism" of the natural sciences and to determine the causes, effects and laws of the studied phenomena, with the aim of predicting and controlling them. Empirical study had to unite with conceptual abstraction and mathematics, in proportions determined by the simplicity or complexity of the field of research. These characteristics of the conception of C. Manger, like similar others, make us assume an important (but unconfessed) influence of A. Comte's positivism. However, to prove it, we will try to restore his true philosophy of science, warped by the neo-positivism of the energetist physicists and of the Vienna Circle.

Keywords: philosophy of sciences; philosophy of economics; Austrian School; positivism; historicism; holism; natural laws; social laws; scientific methods; methodological individualism; [SHS]Humanities and Social Sciences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://jpe.episciences.org/10487/pdf (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.46298/jpe.10033 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bus:jphile:v:15:y:2022:i:1:n:6

Access Statistics for this article

The Journal of Philosophical Economics is currently edited by Valentin Cojanu

More articles in The Journal of Philosophical Economics from Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Valentin Cojanu ().