Politics.ie
Advertise on Politics.ie

Go Back   Politics.ie > Topical Discussion > Economy

Hey there!

It looks like you're enjoying Politics.ie but haven't created an account yet. Why not take a minute to register for your own free account now? As a member you get free access to all of our forums and posts plus the ability to post your own messages, communicate directly with other members and much more. Joining Politics.ie is completely free. Register now!

Already a member? Login at the top of this page to stop seeing this message.

The Action Axiom, true a priori?

This is a discussion on The Action Axiom, true a priori? within the Economy forums, part of the Topical Discussion category on Politics.ie. Originally Posted by Christel For me learning and gaining experience is indistinguishible. Both mean actually the same. A priori must ...

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
  #21 (permalink)  
Old 8th April 2009
Politics.ie Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 2,035
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Christel View Post
For me learning and gaining experience is indistinguishible. Both mean actually the same.
A priori must by definition be independent from experience. So if learning and gaining experience are indistinguishable no learning is a priori.

Learning means gaining knowledge which is different from gaining experience.
Quote:
But re your holographic humans, and the robots appearing to be human you mentiioned on the other thread: I feel there is something wrong in these examples.
You must have something that makes you rightly distinguish between humans and artifical humans, lookalikes/actalikes, but not the same. So I think one shouldn't use the latters to come to decisions about true humans('s actions).
The point of the holographic/robot humans is that in this possible reality they represent humans, it is not just that they are lookalikes/actalikes they are what we know as other humans. The whole point is that they are completely indistinguishable, by robot human I did not mean that they have the skin of humans and are robots underneath I mean they are completely physically human but they as I said "are not trying to achieve ends at all".


Quote:
Now the question occurs to me:

"Humans act" has a subject and a verb. In which lies the a priori part?

Do we know a priori what humans are? And we synthetically know that amongst other characteristics they act?
Or do we know a priori what acts are, and we know additionally that humans frequently perform them?
I presume that that's directed at those who think it is a priori?


Quote:
Originally Posted by feargach
So it would have been wrong to ignore them.
Would have been?!

They where ignored and they slowly gained more influence politically away from the world of economic study until they had the influence they have today (or in the 80s) and they couldn't be ignored anymore. Is that what you want to happen with the Austrian School? Because it would suit them perfectly for none of their theories to be challenged and they can, like the Chicago school gain political influence. Then they can have their own Thatcher, Regan and Pinochet.

They were the consequence of ignoring the Chicago School, it may be the same for the Austrian School.
Either way, you're not doing a good job of ignoring them yourself.
__________________
"She'll hold together. Hear me, baby? Hold together!"
Reply With Quote

Advertise on Politics.ie

  #22 (permalink)  
Old 8th April 2009
Politics.ie Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 4,193
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Seos View Post
They where ignored and they slowly gained more influence politically away from the world of economic study until they had the influence they have today (or in the 80s) and they couldn't be ignored anymore. Is that what you want to happen with the Austrian School? Because it would suit them perfectly for none of their theories to be challenged and they can, like the Chicago school gain political influence. Then they can have their own Thatcher, Regan and Pinochet.

They were the consequence of ignoring the Chicago School, it may be the same for the Austrian School.
Either way, you're not doing a good job of ignoring them yourself.
Errr, you realise the Austrianists came BEFORE the Chicago School, right?

The Chicago school grew from them, as the CS guys decided to take the broad anti-state thrust of the Austrianists, but strip it of the contradictory waffle, and place the system on a slightly steady mathematical basis, that had some vague connection to reality.

Austrianism has been around for almost a century, longer, depending on which books you consider to be part of the school.

It's taking a MIGHTY long time to gain adherents among people with postgraduate economics degrees.

You are obviously into philosophy. If a philosophical (non-economic) school started in the 1920s, was briefly popular for a few years, and then was widely criticised on dozens of seperate grounds, before being gradually dumped by all philosophy departments, would you be wildly interested to read up all about this philosophy, with a mind to seeing if it was spot on? Or would you approach with a touch of caution?
__________________
When you see the words "Mises" or "Hayek" in someone's post, just ask yourself: do I really want to ban paper money and go back to gold?

You have to pity the kind of people who buy into conspiracy theories. I find the following to be the saddest words on the internet: "Re: connection between Bilderberg puppet lady gaga and viral outbreak in ukraine "
Reply With Quote
  #23 (permalink)  
Old 8th April 2009
Politics.ie Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 2,035
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by feargach View Post
Errr, you realise the Austrianists came BEFORE the Chicago School, right?

The Chicago school grew from them, as the CS guys decided to take the broad anti-state thrust of the Austrianists, but strip it of the contradictory waffle, and place the system on a slightly steady mathematical basis, that had some vague connection to reality.

Austrianism has been around for almost a century, longer, depending on which books you consider to be part of the school.

It's taking a MIGHTY long time to gain adherents among people with postgraduate economics degrees.
AS will follow the CS in their political mechanisms. Yes I am aware AS came first that does not stop them copying CS. The whole point is that they don't need a whole load of people with economics degrees to agree with them they just need political power. CSers where never the majority of people with economics degrees (postgraduate or otherwise) but they did gain disproportionate political power to their relatively small number. Real world power of economic policy is all politics and very little economics.


Quote:
You are obviously into philosophy. If a philosophical (non-economic) school started in the 1920s, was briefly popular for a few years, and then was widely criticised on dozens of seperate grounds, before being gradually dumped by all philosophy departments, would you be wildly interested to read up all about this philosophy, with a mind to seeing if it was spot on? Or would you approach with a touch of caution?
LMAO! You are obviously not into philosophy, it is full of schools of thought that where briefly popular and where then ditched and a good study of philosophy teaches about them all.

But anyway I not only approached AS with a touch of caution but with scepticism, so far I have had a few very interesting discussions with the ASers on this forum and found major personal objections to AS teaching.
__________________
"She'll hold together. Hear me, baby? Hold together!"
Reply With Quote
  #24 (permalink)  
Old 8th April 2009
Politics.ie Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 4,193
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Seos View Post
AS will follow the CS in their political mechanisms. Yes I am aware AS came first that does not stop them copying CS. The whole point is that they don't need a whole load of people with economics degrees to agree with them they just need political power.
CSers where never the majority of people with economics degrees (postgraduate or otherwise) but they did gain disproportionate political power to their relatively small number.
Real world power of economic policy is all politics and very little economics.
CSers gathered a large and ever-growing army of postgraduate adherents in the 60s and beyond. That is why they managed to impose their will on the planet. You NEED to convince postrgrad economists of the validity of your ideas, otherwise there will be no professional economists anywhere able to be in a position to impose your ideas on the economy.

Right now, Austrian economists are like the Free Tibet folk, or the Legalise Now! crowd. Anyone with political pull will run a mile from them, and well he should.
__________________
When you see the words "Mises" or "Hayek" in someone's post, just ask yourself: do I really want to ban paper money and go back to gold?

You have to pity the kind of people who buy into conspiracy theories. I find the following to be the saddest words on the internet: "Re: connection between Bilderberg puppet lady gaga and viral outbreak in ukraine "
Reply With Quote
  #25 (permalink)  
Old 8th April 2009
Politics.ie Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 4,193
Default

It's strange that you find Austrianism interesting.

The whole reason it is ignored (having initially been carefully studied) by all academic economics departments globally is that economists looked at it and found it deeply uninteresting.

Their lack of interest was based on the 2 principal problems with Austrianism

One, most or Austrianism's assertions are equally applicable to totally opposite and incomparable economic outcomes and processes. The assertion tells you nothing.

All things being equal, the result could be a massive increase in wealth, or a crushing depression, and Austrianism's assertions are wholly applicable to both scenarios. Von Hayek himself wrote that economic theories "can never be verified or falsified by reference to facts". Useless!!!

Two, Austrianism's few actual predictions fail to materialise in real-life, testable situations. Please look up "Money illusion", the process whereby printing money creates an irrational "wealth effect" in the behaviour in the vast majority of consumers involved. This effect has been observed in both controlled lab experiments AND in real-world economic behaviour. A prime example is the consumer-spending splurge that arose in Ireland in line with the house-price boom, and has just evaporated in line with the collapse in house prices. Austrianists deny this "wealth effect" angrily, but you have seen it with your own peepers for the last 10 years every time you have looked at Irish price tags.

Economists look at these staggering departures from intelligent thought processes and deduce, correctly, that Austrianism is simply a cult with nothing of interest to say about any human economy. They toss the Rothbard book aside and get on with the real study of what happens when money changes hands in the modern world: economics.
__________________
When you see the words "Mises" or "Hayek" in someone's post, just ask yourself: do I really want to ban paper money and go back to gold?

You have to pity the kind of people who buy into conspiracy theories. I find the following to be the saddest words on the internet: "Re: connection between Bilderberg puppet lady gaga and viral outbreak in ukraine "
Reply With Quote
  #26 (permalink)  
Old 8th April 2009
Politics.ie Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: in Toxicated
Posts: 4,519
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by 20000miles View Post
[/LIST]I beleive the answer to this quibble lies somewhere in the realm of "thymology", however 20000miles has been too overloaded to persue this venture, which clearly requires more effort.




This is correct. IIRC Hazlitt tripped up here slightly here.

What I propose:

Human: A member of the genus Homo and especially of the species H. sapiens.
Action: employment of means to achieve ends over time

No surprise that opponents try to characterise these statements as meaningless, empty tautologies.
Those statements are meaningless empty tautologies


The irony is that people who claim they are engaging in logical and 'scientific' reasoning are resorting to circular methodologies in an attempt to bamboozle opponents and drag them into pointless philosophical debates (and I have a degree in philosophy)

The fundamental flaw in their ideology is the fact that they make 'assumptions' to prove their theory, but they can not support those assumptions, when they are asked to justify them, they resort to the kind of sophistry that would make socrates blush. (the 'socratic method' being nothing but covert sophism)
__________________
If you are a genuine sceptic and want the other side of the 'climategate scandal' please watch this short video

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Difference between weather and climate
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
  #27 (permalink)  
Old 8th April 2009
20000miles's Avatar
Politics.ie Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Blumenau
Posts: 3,656
Blog Entries: 1
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Akrasia View Post
Those statements are meaningless empty tautologies
That's what definitions are, right?
__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
¦
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
  #28 (permalink)  
Old 8th April 2009
Politics.ie Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: in Toxicated
Posts: 4,519
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by 20000miles View Post
That's what definitions are, right?
ah, no. You don't define a cat as "an animal that is a cat"
Definitions are not tautologies, they are descriptions

Tautologies describe nothing, While the action axiom isn't strictly a tautology, it is just as meaningless.
__________________
If you are a genuine sceptic and want the other side of the 'climategate scandal' please watch this short video

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Difference between weather and climate
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
  #29 (permalink)  
Old 8th April 2009
Politics.ie Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Dublin
Posts: 1,631
Default

Hi Seos, twinkle, Akrasia,

Sorry for not being more of a contributer to this thread, I'm in the middle of reading a book directly related to the subject matter. You should all definitely read it. I'll post a few comments once finished. It's Mises last book "The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science".

http://mises.org/books/ultimate.pdf
__________________
.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
: :
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote
  #30 (permalink)  
Old 8th April 2009
Politics.ie Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,194
Default

"Learning means gaining knowledge which is different from gaining experience."

How is it different?

"The point of the holographic/robot humans is that in this possible reality they represent humans, it is not just that they are lookalikes/actalikes they are what we know as other humans. The whole point is that they are completely indistinguishable, by robot human I did not mean that they have the skin of humans and are robots underneath I mean they are completely physically human but they as I said "are not trying to achieve ends at all"."

How would you know that they don't act?

And what about this: There are animals that look like sheep and are indeed sheep. They act.
I gained this knowledge from from experience.

What can you or others say against it? "Sheep act" is certainly not a priori. Is it different from "humans act"?

"I presume that that's directed at those who think it is a priori?"

Yes.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
austrian economics, economics, philosophy, you don't know how to act

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Economic growth - an axiom? Christel Economy 24 31st March 2009 11:38 PM
Which news is true? jetttxyz Media 12 10th May 2008 09:50 AM


Advertise on Politics.ie

All times are GMT. The time now is 08:13 PM.