Take your time with the book. Human Action is not something you want to skim. Write down your thoughts after each chapter. Reading is paramount, but your understanding will suffer if you do not reflect. Of course, this forum is an excellent place to bounce around thoughts and to ask any questions you may have.
Also, Theory and History is a great complement to HA.
Good luck!
Exactly:-- Vanilla vs. Chocolate, Kobzon vs. Kid Rock, Chedder vs. Blue Cheese, etc.
Everyone has different preferences, but they are egoistic. Even the monk who rejects all wordly things minus his bathrobe does this only because he expects greater rewards in the afterlife. Every parent who takes care of their children does it out of pride, want of people to maintain his property, etc.
No moral rule which proscribes one goal for everone instead of another can be know to make someone better off without making anyone worse off. Now, even if some people benefit but others lose, what goes around comes around and society won’t exist for too long. (Golden Rule is the only stable legal rule said Bruno Leoni.)
Division of labour, however, increases production irrespective of any particular good–it increases overall productivity. Doing anything that increases division of labour is moral, and everything else isn’t, if we use those words at all. (Mises’ perspective.)
There is no market for morals; but there can be and should be, like for anything else, a market for laws, so long as laws conform to the golden rule. (Bruno Leoni had a great collection of essays recently translated–last one is on market for laws.)
Hope this summary helps.
Other Perspectives:
Henry Hazlitt backs Ludwig Mises, as does Leoni back Mises.
Friedrich Hayek goes a bit overboard on Leoni’s concept by saying in Fatal Conceit that morals were just like long accepted laws determined by evolution and markets, and contrary Mises, are for that reason not something that can be judged by reason. Mises is argued that tradition can be evaluated by reason in light of economic reasoning.
Perhaps I’m reading into your post, but are you implying that there should be a market for morality, as there is for chocolate and vanilla? That sounds quite relativistic…
lol, mabe we can settle on strawberry , but I wouldn’t say there is a morality “market”, just if something “is” (and I don’t claim such a thing) it “is” in the sense as X-mas is a world wide tradition, or that there is “music theory” that is recognizable, to call it “relatviistic” may ber missing the point. It may be a bit off to take the non-cognitive route. It is not in the “language game” (to use a Wittgenstein term) of logic or science, and can not be inserted into such a thing with much sense, just as scientism may not be interjected into inter-subjective theory. That said, there are 1001 ways to combat moral arguments and 0 ways to state them in argumentation.
EIither way, morality inserted in science, logic, politics, or “objective realty” is useless at best. If “ethics” are to exist I consider egoism a “meta-ethic”, ethical egoism not so sure what it means (if it means Misean consequentialism, fine).
This may sound Objectivist, but how does one act not in their self-interest? I feel altruism has a physcological self-interest. Also, is ethical egoism saying that everyone should pursue satisfaction and chose means considering their specific potential consequences?
I would say, if you wish to read about egoism read Max Stirner’s “The Ego And His Own” before anything else, it is really all you need to read. If you wish for “Cliff notes”, or a discussion on the book I will be more than glad to participate or recommend any ancilliary material via Amazon recommendations.
If you wish to find out about “overall” social, economic, and philosophic theory though, start with Mises, particularly “Human Action”. There is much material on this site that can help you digest him better (including a comic book!) if you have any troubles.
NonAntiAnarchist,
I just took a look at the content description in Theory & History. I agree that it looks like a great compliment to Human Action. I seem to find that bouncing back between two books and maybe a third one in the mix keeps your thinking from getting saturated on one topic. I may read my Human Action hard copy and skip over too the online Theory & History every now and then.
I’m sure I’ll have more questions since that hamster wheel in my head sometimes needs some help spinning, Heh.
thelion,
The summary is much obliged. My reading comprehension could use a little polishing but your wording was very clear.
You feel that the private court system would have the Golden Rule as an industry standard? Also, with the judges recognizing the near-universality of egoism, how do you feel they would decide in a case of a impoverished theif stealing to survive?
William,
I did a google search and I came across the book (Ego And His Own) here:
http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/stirner/theego0.html
Also, I got a result from LRC:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer28.html
I have not read the article or anything from the book yet but when I get a chance I plan to go through it. Is there a reflection on Stirner’s work online that you would recommend?
I would recommend going with Human Action, Theory and History, and The Ultimate Foundation.
It’s as if Mises wrote his magnum opus (Human Action), but then found that he still had a lot of work to do with methodology and epistemology. And (as far as I know) it’s Theory and History along with The Ultimate Foundation which represent that work.
I. Ryan,
The Ultimate Foundation doesn’t appear to be a long book. I appreciate the recommendation. I will certainly use it while working my way through this material.
I have not read the article or anything from the book yet but when I get a chance I plan to go through it. Is there a reflection on Stirner’s work online that you would recommend?
Not anymore, the handful of useful commentary I knew of online is now offline, the rest you have to buy. I would only go through the work if you are really really interested in egoism, there is really no reason I can think of otherwise to start by reading that book.