Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Actions, philosophy: Actions are conscious or unconscious human actions as opposed to physical events. The action can take place against the will of the agent, but only if the opposed will is not strong enough to prevent the execution entirely._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Murray N. Rothbard on Actions - Dictionary of Arguments
Rothbard III 70 Action/Rothbard: (…) all action involves an exchange—a giving up of a state of affairs for what the actor expects will be a more satisfactory state. Rothbard III 71 Decisions: (…) man must always act. Since he is always in a position to improve his lot, even “doing nothing” is a form of acting. “Doing nothing” - or spending all of his time in leisure - is a choice that will affect his supply of consumers’ goods. Therefore, man must always be engaged in choosing and in action. Since man is always acting, he must always be engaged in trying to attain the greatest height on his value scale, whatever the type of choice under consideration. >Factors of Production/Rothbard, >Entrepreneurship/Rothbard. Costs/utility/action/Rothbard: (…) an actor’s costs are his forgone opportunities to enjoy consumers’ goods. Similarly, the (greater) utility that he expects to acquire because of the action may be considered his psychic income, or psychic revenue, which in turn will be equal to the utility of the goods he will consume as a result of the action. Rothbard III 72 Ends/aims/goals/Rothbard: It is important to realize that economics does not propound any laws about the content of man’s ends. Rothbard III 305 Action/Rothbard: (…) [there are] grave dangers of the mathematical method in economics, since this method carries with it the bias of the assumption of continuity, or the infinitely small step. Most writers on economics consider this assumption a harmless, but potentially very useful, fiction, and point to its great success in the field of physics. They overlook the enormous differences between the world of physics and the world of human action. The problem is not simply one of acquiring the microscopic measuring tools that physics has developed. The crucial difference is that physics deals with inanimate objects that move but do not act. >Utility/Rothbard, >Marginal utility/Rothbard, >Marginal utility/Jevons. Rothbard III 410 Action/Rothbard: When we state that the time-preference schedules of all individuals in the society determine the interest rate and the proportion of savings to consumption, we mean all individuals, and not some sort of separate class called “capitalists.” >Production structure/Rothbard, >Time preference/Rothbard. There is a temptation, since the production structure is analyzed in terms of different classes - landowners, laborers, and capitalists - to conclude that there are three definite stratified groups of people in society corresponding to these classifications. Actually, in economic analysis of the market we are concerned with functions rather than whole persons per se. In reality, there is no special class of capitalists set off from laborers and landowners. This is not simply due to the trite fact that even capitalists must also be consumers. It is also due to the more important fact that all consumers can be capitalists if they wish. >Market/Rothbard, >Consumption/Rothbard, >Factors of production/Rothbard. Apparent paradox: How can a laborer or a landowner be a demander of present goods, and then turn around and be a supplier of present goods for investment? Solution/Rothbard: (…) the two acts are not performed at the same time, even though both are performed to the same extent in their turn in the endless round of the evenly rotating economy. >Evenly Rotating Economy, >Demand, >Supply, >Consumer goods, >Capital goods, >Durable goods, >Time preference._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Rothbard II Murray N. Rothbard Classical Economics. An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Cheltenham 1995 Rothbard III Murray N. Rothbard Man, Economy and State with Power and Market. Study Edition Auburn, Alabama 1962, 1970, 2009 Rothbard IV Murray N. Rothbard The Essential von Mises Auburn, Alabama 1988 Rothbard V Murray N. Rothbard Power and Market: Government and the Economy Kansas City 1977 |
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