Wieser and Smart: Austrian Classics Online
The latest additions to the Molinari Online Library are two early classics of the Austrian School:
- First: the 1893 English translation of Friedrich von Wieser’s 1889 treatise Natural Value. Wieser – student of Menger, brother-in-law of Böhm-Bawerk, and teacher of Hayek – was one of the founders of the Austrian tradition in economics. He’s admittedly somewhat heterodox from the standpoint of mainline Austrian theory; for example, he rejects Böhm-Bawerk’s theory of interest on the grounds that positive time-preference is irrational (a “sign of a defective economy”); and Joseph Salerno has argued that Wieser’s whole concept of “natural value” veers too closely to a general equilibrium approach. But Wieser’s treatise is nevertheless a useful and fascinating discussion of subjective value and marginal utility from a broadly Mengerian standpoint, and certainly deserves its place among the founding Austrian texts. And moreover, while he is certainly friendlier to government intervention than Mises or even Hayek, Wieser does offer a partial anticipation of Mises’ calculation argument against socialist central planning.
- Second: William Smart’s 1891 primer An Introduction to the Theory of Value on the Lines of Menger, Wieser, and Böhm-Bawerk. Smart was the first English translator of Böhm-Bawerk (as well editor of the Wieser volume above), and his Introduction has been described by Salerno as a “lucid and highly sympathetic introduction to Austrian value theory.” In later years Smart moved away from a pure Austrian position in order to impale himself on the Marshallian “scissors”; in the interest of maximum usefulness to scholars, this online version includes both the fully Austrian first edition and the semi-Marshallian second edition.
Comments (2)
Dennis Sperduto
Regarding the Friedrich von Wieser issue discussed above by Professor Long, in addition to the noted article by Professor Joseph Salerno, Professor Samuel Bostaph has written an outstanding article entitled “Wieser on Economic Calculation under Socialism� that appeared in the QJAE, Summer 2003 (Volume 6, Number 2).
Also, I believe it would be helpful to quote Mises from his “Notes and Recollections� (pages 35-36) regarding his evaluation of Wieser’s contributions to the Austrian School:
“[Wieser] was a highly cultured gentleman, had a fine intellect, and was an honest scholar. Before many others, he was fortunate to become acquainted with the work of Menger, the significance of which he recognized immediately. He enriched the thought in some respects, although he was no creative thinker and in general was more harmful than useful. He never really understood the gist of the idea of Subjectivism in the Austrian School of thought, which limitation caused him to make many unfortunate mistakes. His imputation theory is untenable. His ideas on value calculation justify the conclusion that he could not be called a member of the Austrian School, but rather was a member of the Lausanne School, which in Austria was represented brilliantly by Rudolf Auspitz and Richard Lieben.�
Published: February 24, 2006 8:02 PM
Roderick T. Long
Here's the link to that Bostaph article:
http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae6_2_1.pdf
Published: February 24, 2006 10:06 PM