I realize that a lot of the criticisms of the austrians have is against mainstream economists. They’re about actual real things. Back before when I started to read austrian works I used to not believe that people actually thought the things that they were criticizing. But after having learned more about economics when I read over the austrian works I realize that they’re defending capitalism from statist economists who seem to have an ineptitude for monopolies, oligopolies or anything of the sort. So, now I realize that the austrians aren’t just saying what their philosophy isn’t. They’re actually defending it from the fallacies of mainstream economics (such as mainstream economic beliefs in fiscal policy). So. I want to know how much economics should I know before I’ll be able to understand the works of the austrians? I imagine that in the meantime I should read their works on philosophy-- like I’ve read Liberalism with no problems and other of their works with no problem… but… I realize that their economic works requires some basic knowledge of mainstream economics. I have been looking at Human Action again, and, I realize that it takes a certain knowledge of economics to be able to understand what Mises is talking about, and, that it is not just rhetoric.
Depends on how much you want to know, to be honest. You should at least be familiar with the central arguments of Marxism, Keynesianism, and the Monetarists. What sets Austrian economics apart from the rest of these is its epistemology. You would do good to read up about Austrian epistemology, which means looking at such works as Theory and History, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, Economic Science and the Austrian Method, and the first couple hundred or so pages of Human Action.
Edit: Oh, and I should add, you don’t really need to know anything about any other schools of economic thought to grasp Austrian economics. It is pretty much self contained (due to it’s axiomatic-deductive nature). If you start with a work like Man, Economy, and State, you will get a complete overview of Austrian economic theory.
Reading Human Action doesn’t really require knowledge of economics, but it is useful. The ‘problem’ with human action is that it isn’t as accesible as some other Austrian works, like an, Economy & State or Economics for real people.
I would say that you don’t have to know ‘any’ economics, because learning praxeology and studying the Austrian school is learning economics!
In order to ‘get’ the Austrian work, well… that’s up to you.