Source link: http://blog.mises.org/5883/raimondo-on-rothbard-newly-available/
Raimondo on Rothbard, Newly Available
Previous post: A Treasure in Leather
Next post: Democrats are still in the back pockets of corporations
The Ludwig von Mises Institute
Tu Ne Cede Malis
Advancing the Scholarship of Liberty in the Tradition of the Austrian School
{ 7 comments }
This is the book where you can read how Rothbard adandoned statistics after he “discovered” (in an introductory class mind you) that the whole field was “based” on the false “premise” of the normal distrbution.
Yah, Rothbardians really hitched their wagon to a rising intellectual star. *roll* Give me the hayekian brand of Austrian econ anyday. It may lack intellectual purity, it doesn’t deliever all the answers, but it’s a hell of a lot more reasonable.
Boerd,
Not that I have read the book yet, but I sincerely doubt that you are accurately characterizing Rothbard’s ‘conversion’. To my knowledge, Rothbard never repudiated statistics as a discipline, only their usefulness in describing human economic behavior.
I was just thinking about this book, a few hours ago (I saw an episode of Cold Case, mentioning the McCarthy anti-Communist period, and it got me thinking about those issues, and how the paleolibertarians take a certain stand on that… which was addressed in Justin’s bio of Rothbard).
For a moment, when I saw this blog entry, I thought perhaps that this excellent book was now available online (as you’ve been doing, with other books). But for a recent work such as this (I believe it was published in 2000, if not 2001), that is too much to ask.
I was fortunate enough that, when I checked in 2001 (or perhaps it was 2002), Brookens Library actually had a copy. I think it would be a good idea to purchase one – it is book I would have to recommend, to the readers here.
Boerd – for statistics to be applicable to something, that something must be measureable in values which are additive (i.e. values with well-defined summation (subtraction, comparison, etc) operations).
The economics deals with utilities. Utilities are trivially demonstrable to be non-additive. Any single real-life example of phenomenon of marginal utility is sufficient as a proof of non-additivity of utilities.
This means that no matter what theory one invents, the use statistics in economics is completely invalid. From the point of view of a mathetatican, the entire body of statistical economics has about the same validity as if every formula in it contained division by zero. The results of all these fancy computations are undefined.
Averros, concept of probability is not about mathematics; in mathematics probability is just an set function. Axiomatic mathematical probability is based on measure theory where probability just satisfies so-called Kolmogorov’s axioms. In mathematics there is also alternative ways to construct probability; non-standard analysis and expectation on C* – algebra.
There is diverging views about the concept of probability; Frequentist objetivist (Richard von Mises) where probability is a limit of certain sequence, Logical objectivist (J.M Keynes and R Carnap) where probability is logical relation and subjectivist (F. Ramsey, H. Jeffries and L. Savage & M. Friedman) where probability can said to correspond somehow to degree of belief. So averros, if someone is speaking about the probability in economics you have to ask what he is meaning..
As a trained econometrician I cannot accept your most darkest opinion about the use of statistics in economics. First we almost always deal with the aggregates and it’s unknown to us how these correspond to the choices made by the agents in the economy. Why not just assume that these aggregates are generated by some (unknown to us) statistical mechanism? Econometrician may have different hypotheses about the structure of economy and all different tests can be used to check validity of these. Like professor David Hendry says the essence of econometrics is to “Test, test and then again test”
Last joke about the econometrics;
“What is daughter of Mr and Ms Specification called?”
“She is of course Miss Specification”
I read An Enemy of the State right after it was first published. It is a well-written biography of a fascinating man. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the early days of the libertarian movement. Even if you are not all that sympathetic to Rothbard’s arguments, I think you’ll find the story of Rothbard’s life to be uplifting and inspirational.
Raimondo did a good job of telling the story.
I first found this treasure at the famous Strand Bookstore in Greenwich Village on 12th Street and Broadway. I felt like a kid in a candy store or a child on Christmas morning when I came across it. This is really a book that fills in a lot of background for the curious and inspired. A must read.
Comments on this entry are closed.