Abstract
In the above, it has been shown that the praxeologist as a social scientist looks for those elements that drive individual action and thereby social structure.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Hence the essential difference between the natural and social sciences is “that in the natural sciences the process of deduction has to start from some hypothesis which is the result of inductive generalizations, while in the social sciences it starts directly from known empirical elements and uses them to find the regularities in the complex phenomena which direct observations cannot establish” (von Hayek 1957, p. 126).
- 2.
It may be mentioned in this context that although Praxeology is founded upon the notions of value and preference, it does not deal with why people have the values that drives them toward particular choices and actions. That is, theories of praxeology concern “the endeavor to reach a goal by the use of means,” but not causal explanation of psychological drives involved or ethical evaluation of means and ends (Mises 1990c, p. 9). Rather, it deals rather with the fact that they choose and act “in compliance with a choice made” (Mises 2007, p. 271). Hence, it may be said that Praxeology itself is conceptual and deals in universals and categories, and does not provide a complete explanation for specific events alone. Rather, its theorems may be employed for such a purpose by employing assumptions (Mises 1996, p. 51). For example, the perceived disutility of labor and other psychological assumptions are important in Praxeology and the Praxeologist needs to be familiar with the empirical support for assumptions that he incorporates in his theorems. However, it does not aim to explain them.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tonsberg, T.A., Henderson, J.S. (2016). Distinguishing Features of Praxeology. In: Understanding Leadership in Complex Systems. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40445-5_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40445-5_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-40444-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-40445-5
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)