Encyclopedia > An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought
An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought is a book written by Murray N. Rothbard, with a sub-title “Economic Thought Before Adam Smith”. Volume I).
It assumes that individual subjective utilities and costs can be added, subtracted, and measured so as to arrive at a "net social utility" or social "cost," thus permitting the utilitarian to advise for or against a given social policy.
Modern welfare economics is particularly adept at arriving at estimates (even allegedly precise quantitative ones) of "social cost" and "social utility."
But economics does correctly inform us, not that moral principles are subjective, but that utilities and costs are indeed subjective: individual utilities are purely subjective and ordinal, and therefore it is totally illegitimate to add or weight them to arrive at any estimate for "social" utility or cost.
AnAustrianPerspective on the History of EconomicThought is vintage Rothbard, which means that the volumes are very readable, always unique in interpretation.
In short RothbardÂ’s AnAustrianPerspective on the History of EconomicThought is a major contribution to the history of economicthought in general, and to Austrianeconomics in particular, and it deserves a wide circulation.
Tracing economicthought from the Greeks to the Scottish Enlightenment, this book is notable for its inclusion of all the important figures in each school of thought with their theories assessed in historical context.
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