Subjectivism and the Meaning of Economic Processes Peter J. Boettke Econ 881/Spring March

Main Points of the Subjectivist Perspective Subjectivism of Values  Diamond/Water paradox  Value in use and value in exchange Opportunity cost  Cost in known to the decision maker and only at the moment of decision Subjectivism of Expectations  Future orientation of economic action  Imagined future and a disappointing present Subjectivism of Knowledge  Prices and the interpretation of meaning  Passage of time and new and ever fresh knowledge

The Active Process of the Human Mind The Facts of the Social Sciences  Beliefs and Ideas Price formation  Mutually beneficial exchange Interest rates  Pure time preference Profit  Max profit and minimizing costs  Psychic income

The Economic Process Imagined future  Wishful conjectures Objects of choice  Goods and services Learning from choice  The desired and the desirable Reorientation of choice  Open-endedness of means/ends

Subjectivism and All That Menger  Subjectivism of value Mises  Thorough-going subjectivism Hayek  Dispersed knowledge Shackle/Lachmann  Subjectivism, kaleidic world and economic order Rothbard  Subjectivism and objective stuff Back to Mises  Overcoming solipsism

Can there be a science of economics?