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[Editor's Note: The following comments are in response to Greg Ransom's  
reply to Pat Gunning posted yesterday, 2 October, in this same  
conversation thread.] 
 
        I remember a conversation between two profs when I first enrolled in a masters' 
of economics program about 25 years ago. They had what they regarded as a highly 
abstract and complete discussion of some economic issue without ever stating an idea. 
The first would mention one economist's name; the second would counter with the name of 
a different economist. And then the first would counter with still a different name. And 
so it went. My fellow students regarded this as evidence of their brilliance. To be able 
to summarize complex ideas in a single name is a great skill. That two people can do 
this must greatly facilitate communication, they thought. But I was led to wonder: Are 
they really communicating in a way that they may learn something? Or are they merely 
producing a ritualistic chant. 
        More to the point. Your note gives the impression that Mises was preempted -- 
that his ideas were not especially different from those of the early phenomenologists 
and Austrian economists. I would feel better about following your reading suggestions if 
I was confident that you understood the deeper implications of accepting the point that 
the phenomena of praxeology and economics are fundamentally different from those of the 
natural sciences and that, as a result, they require fundamentally different methods of 
study. Acceptance of this point would apparently lead you to appreciate, though perhaps 
not accept, the proposition that formalism is totally alien to the method of study that  
Mises regarded as appropriate for praxeology and economics. (Unfortunately, however,  
Mises did not give us a recipe to show us how to apply the method of praxeology and  
economics. This is implicit in his work.) 
        I am using the term "formalism" in the way that the HESers seem to have been 
using it in recent discussions in this forum. You may have something different mind, 
such as the application of logical reasoning. If so, it might be worth exploring that 
difference. 
          
Greg, more specific comments on your remarks are contained in a direct Email. 
http://stsvr.showtower.com.tw/~gunning/welcome 
 
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