The Role of Ideas
Reason is man's particular and characteristic feature, wrote Ludwig von Mises in Human Action.
Reason distinguishes man from other animals. All action is preceded by thinking. The reasoning employed may be faulty, but by definition action is the purposeful attempt to remove uneasiness. It is always an individual, not "society," who thinks. Tradition — primarily through language — allows present actors to incorporate into their own thinking the reasoning of their ancestors. This renders present thinking more productive, just as labor is now more productive because of our inheritance of capital goods created by our forefathers. FULL ARTICLE
