Hi all,
I’m wondering in which sense Menger is using the term “catallactics” in his Investigations (p. 198).
This is the quote from the online version available at mises.org (p. 197-8):
“Both the conception of theoretical economics in the sense of a general theoretical social science and also the conception of it in the sense of a mere catallactics, a philosophy of the history of national economy, etc., are errors of this kind”.
To me it seems like he is equaling “philosophy of the history of national economy” with “catallactics”.
Another possibility is that he is just listing up several conceptions of theoretical economics which are erroneous and that one of them is economics as “mere catallactics” and another misconception would be economics as “philosophy of the history of national economy”.
But in the latter case I wonder what he understand as “catallactics”. When Mises - and later Hayek - introduce the term they both explain in length where the term comes from originally (Whately) and what they understand as catallactics exactly. Since Menger does not explain neither origin nor meaning, it seems to me that the first interpretation (“catallactics” as “philosophy of the history of national economy”) is more plausible. But maybe Menger understands catallactics in a third way - maybe in a sense which was common in his time.
I would appreciate any comments, suggestions or interpretations on this issue.