This isn’t necessarily for specific books, but to let members coordinate readings on their own.
Begin!
Note: Please make new threads for specific reading groups under the “General” section of the forum, and tag them with the label “reading group” for ease of access.
So, would anybody like to start a reading group with any of the following books?
Epistemological Problems of Economics (Mises)
Lessons for the Young Economist (Rob Murphy)
The Mystery of Banking (Rothbard)
Socialism (Mises)
I just wanted to say that this is a great idea. I’d be very interested in something like this. I read your post in the other topic, and I’m also 21 and going to school(Chemical Engineering). My spring semester wraps up in a couple weeks. Until then, I’m probably too busy to read anything. But once the spring semester is over, it’s nothing but me, some Econ/Philosophy books, and my internship…In other words, I plan on getting a lot of reading done this summer.
I’ll check this thread periodically to see what’s going on. I might have to join one of these reading groups.
I wouldn’t mind doing the Tractus by Wittgenstein - and have always toyed with doing such a thing.
it’s very easy to go through point by by point, and discuss
Short, but difficult read no? I’m interested.
Sorry nonanti - didn’t mean to hijack -I coldn’t help but throw my 2 cents
I wouldn’t mind doing socialism or epistemics if you do them, consider me in
You didn’t hijack- this is meant to be a thread where readings are organized by members. Then the members who respond as interested establish specific threads.
im looking to read hazlitts failure of new economics but would also consider misess theory of money and credit or his work on epistemology. speaking of which, what exactly is the difference between problems in epistemology and the ultimate foundation of economic science? pardon my syntax this from my phone.
Oh good.
this is a long overdue and great idea -hopefully this catches on.
gl on this nonantianarchist
Hopefully. So, Tractatus?
I’ve read the Tractatus - it was too rigid for my liking and seemed to take for granted some kind of unspoken “visualizability”, I don’t know how else to explain it. But that was before I encountered Mises and Austrianism, maybe I should give it another look through new eyes.
Clayton -
I just “bought” it (it’s free in electronic form on Amazon) and read a review while it downloaded. Apparently Wittgenstein set out to show that a lot of philosophical problems exist only because propositions are made that aren’t in accordance to what he calls a picture theory of propositions in that propositions are meant to be pictures of reality. According to LW, these problems exist because we make propositions that we can’t make. Seems interesting.
According to wiki the author of Tractatus critiqed it years later. So that kind of puts a dampner on it. Socialism is excellent but, after 100 pages or so, Mises go through every single argument put forward on the socialist side at the time. Although its great that he destroys their argument, it gets quite boring.
How about Bohm Bawerk’s capital and interest. I know he got some stuff wrong but its still supposed to be a very good book.
Besides the former being meatier and written earlier in his academic career, I’m not sure.
I’m looking through the chapters of EPoE, and it looks reaaally good. Shall we start a reading group on that then?
@Jargon - Epistemological Problems of Economics is made up of earlier essays on methodology (and preserves Mises’ use of the term ‘sociology’ for what he later came to call ‘praxeology’). The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science is a much later work that covers many of the same issues - it is therefore more developed in some ways but is in fact shorter than EpoE.
I would be interested in re-reading The Failure of the New Economics also. I read it a few years ago but a refresh would be helpful. Perhaps, though, it would be better start with a shorter work - I recently reread Mises, Marxism Unmasked which is a quick yet very important read.
This is actually one type of thread where a tag would be useful…NonAntiAnarchist, you might edit your OP to put up a notice for anyone creating a new reading group thread to use the tag “reading group” or something like that (and to make sure they create the thread in the “general” forum). This way, it will always be easy to access them, and newcomers will be able to quickly and easily see which discussion threads have been created and browse them.
(Also you might tag this one as well.)
QFT.
Would you recommend reading Epistemological Problems of Economics first or The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science first?
@NAA - So right now I’m choosing between Hazlitt on Keynes or Mises on Epistemology. Mises on Epistemology could either go EPoE, UFfES, or Theory and History. TaH and EPoE are about the same length, though TaH from what I understand is a little bit longer and a little bit easier to read.
@Aristippus - Have you read either of Mises works on epistemology, and if so what are your thoughts on them comparatively?
I don’t mean to sound melodramatic but I don’t want to choose my next read too lightly because I will be contractually obliged for two months to not read anything in english, starting halfway through june. How about reading Ultimate Foundation for Economic Science and then Hazlitt?
@TOG and Jargon
I have read them both, as well as Theory and History (and Human Action, Bureaucracy etc.). Ultimate Foundation is less than half the length of EPoE, is a more structured work since the latter is a collection of essays, and comes from Mises’ mature period. For those reasons I would recommend reading it first out of the two. I second Jargon’s suggestion of Ultimate Foundation followed by Failure of the New Economics.