E-LOGOS 2006, 13(1):1-73
Austrian Economics and the Problems of Apriorism
- Department of Philosophy, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic
Keywords: a priori economics, praxeology, proto-sciences, Hayek's Sensory Order, evolutionary apriorism, Engli¹, semantical order of language, Adam Smith, the spontaneous formation of language, vicious circles, Hegel, "experience of consciousness", quantum mechanics, theory of relativity
Any attempt at scientific justification of the validity of the a priori economics or praxeology must face the danger of vicious circles coming from the fact that any science (including Hayek's evolutionary-aprioristic theory of neuronal networks as developed in his Sensory Order) is based on some a priori presuppositions. It is Hegel's conception of the spiral movement of the "experience of consciousness" (as applied originally in his Phenomenology of Spirit) which gives an efficient method of elimination of that kind of vicious circles; being aptly re-interpreted, it even enables to defend apriorism (in its evolutionary version) face to face the developments in modern physics which resulted in Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. Consequently, evolutionary apriorism (as utilising the inspirations from the works of Hayek, Adam Smith, Hegel, Karel Engli¹, etc.) is able to present scientific arguments in favour of the categorical statement that praxeology - as an a priori proto-science - is an indispensable basis for empirical economics.
Prepublished online: January 1, 2006; Published: June 1, 2006 Show citation