RE: On Why I Am Skeptical of the Austrian School

Response to Luddite Romantic's video

See Libertyinourtime: http://www.youtube.com/user/LibertyInOurTime

Also see: http://www.mises.org http://www.lewrockwell.com http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard38.html

See my series on free will and determinism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e13avJ0djgc

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• Murray
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• liberty
• morality
• rights
• economics
• deduction
• Austrian
• school
• LudditeRomantic
• Thomas
• Aquinas
• Aristotle

[fsvoorhies]

i love ow rationalization is thrown out, really, scientific method solves all problems? this guy is more 1 dimensioal then he leads on. lol?

[AdversusHaereses]

The only thing Austrian economists can do is predict things, well if that is the use of a theory, what is the point of predictions when the the solutions to the problems are all tried-and-tested things which have not worked? The Austrian methodology is also based on false assumptions hence why it will never reach the status of mainstream economics. The lack of any positivist data and research is also a great downside of the school.

[CytherLynx]

@CytherLynx Austrian economics FTW.

Please, if you want to understand it yourself.

watch Youtube videos if you're slack. eg Thomas woods, Peter Schiff, Joseph Salerno etc

but then read:

'The Law', by Frederick Bastiat. (50 pages)

'Economics in one lesson', by Henry Hazlitt (270 pages)

two short books and you'll be fairly well versed.

~

if you want more (you will), read 'Man economy and state' by Rothbard (900+ pages) and keep up to date with mises(dot)org

[CytherLynx]

the universe is largely determined. but in the sense that it is determined that if you flip a coin a a trillion times, it will even out to almost exactly 50%. ... in that effect, it is determined, even if QM is exactly not determined. we don't live on the level of QMs and it is clear the universe follows a non random pattern.

that being said however, the human mind should be treated as an unpredictable entity.

consciousness exists BECAUSE the universe is determined, not in spite of.

[TimothyBragan]

Deductive logic fails because some people have deduced stupid nonsense at some point in some way. Hurr durr derpidy herp DERP.

[soultorment27]

@tumbleweedjoe "My will is the causer, or else I simply have no will" The will is caused. It would be meaningless to say that an agent is free to will freely as he will. The way we use the word "free" in ordinary language is consistent with compatibilism.

There was at least one uncaused cause but if the will was itself uncaused, it wouldnt be free. An uncaused cause is merely arbitrary and therefore random. This is why I'm having trouble conceiving the will as both uncaused and rational.

[tumbleweedjoe]

@soultorment27 I don't have to act on beliefs or desires, so no, those don't cause my will. My will is the causer, or else I simply have no will. Also, you cannot precede to infinity with causes, so eventually (in the case of the world) you must terminate in some kind of a prime mover, or basic fact which acts without being acted upon. But if there's at least on of these movers, why can't be other cause-originators with powers similar or analogous to the first? Not everything *can* be determined

[soultorment27]

@tumbleweedjoe You say actions are caused by agents & that agents are the originator of their choices. But how does this sidestep the problem of randomness? Even if actions are caused by the will, if the will is itself uncaused then it's still random. We all recognize that the will is caused. We condition the behavior of others everyday. The will is caused by beliefs and desires. Beliefs and desires dont pop out of thin air they're shaped by factors. If the will wasnt caused it'd be irrational!

[tumbleweedjoe]

@tumbleweedjoe *not what the historical debate has been about*

[tumbleweedjoe]

@soultorment27 ...red herring. That's not when the historical debate has been about! The determinists (historically) have been those who said that some external entity (either God (in the case of Calvinists) or Nature (in the case of materialists) makes me do what I do. The proponents of free will have argued that neither God or nature forces me to choose one way or the other, but rather because I'm a man, I have a specific special nature which allows me to originate my own actions.