John, and others, on Menger's influence on Mises (which is incorrectly attributed as minimal I would argue) the counter evidence is (as a start) would be: (a) Mises's own statements in NOTES & RECOLLECTIONS where he explicitly states that reading Menger's Principles is what made him an economist, and (b) in HUMAN ACTION, when he discusses the "Epistemological Importance of Carl Menger's Theory of Money" Mises says that not only does Menger provide a correct theory of the origin of money, but in so doing provides the "exemplar" of the praxeological method and its style of research. Mises's theory of society (he has a chapter in Human Action devoted to this) is one grounded in the theory of social cooperation. Not only is Mises's theory not as reductionists as John Medalle is suggesting (there is a primary and secondary literature on this in the field, e.g., Mises explicit contrasts his approach with homoeconomicus and others have picked up on this to discuss the idea of methodological individualism as a non-reductionist position). But he is explicit that catallactics (theory of the market) has limits, as does praxeology (theory of action). The point that Mises was making was for a _praxeological_ analysis the analytical focus has to be on purposes and plans of actors. Other factors may impact, but they might not be of praxeological relevance. For example, we may learn more about brain research and the chemical reactions firing off in our head when making decisions. But still what matters for praxeology is the fact that individuals have purposes and plans and must choose and in making those choices must pursue one path and forgo another, etc., etc. As Mises says, he does not deny collective entities exist, the question is how do we render them intelligible. Sam Bostaph points to the connection between Mises work and Mengers --- rightfully so. But one can also look at the link between Mises and Weber --- Ludwig Lachmann's The Legac of Max Weber (Univ of California Press, 1971) is great on this, as is his earlier book review of Mises's Nationaleconomie in Economica. Richard Swedberg has picked up on this theme and you can see some great connections between Mises's theory of social cooperation and Weber's in Swedberg's Max Weber's Economic Sociology (Princeton University Press). Finally, another sociological thinker directly influenced by Mises (who was his teacher) is Alfred Schutz. Pete Boettke