Subjectivism in Economics and Philosophy : Re-Orientating Economic Theory / Karl Mittermaier.

Front Cover -- Subjectivism In Economics and Philosophy: Re-orientating Economic Theory -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Foreword -- Preface -- Prologue -- Preamble: Re-orientating Economic Theory - Mittermaier's Challenge to Conventional Approaches -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Argument summary -- 3. The universal and the particular in economic methodology: nominalist and realist perspectives -- 4. Methodological reversal: from general to particular in economic theory -- 5. Beyond the rationalism-empiricism divide: unveiling the nominalist connection -- 6. Taking meaning for granted -- 7. Distinct or familiar: two views of certainty -- 8. Cartesian versus Aristotelian approaches to economic knowledge: Mittermaier's perspective -- 9. Descartes' error: equating the distinct with certainty -- 10. The ex-ante/ex-post confusion in revealed preference theory -- 11. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Author's Note -- 1 Introduction -- 1. Philosophy of science applied to economics -- 2. Metalanguage: unit of significance from word to theory-laden facts -- 3. How theory relates to what is before our eyes -- a. The one and the many or the general and the particular -- b. The problem of induction -- c. Realism and nominalism -- d. Theory-laden facts -- 4. Plan of the following chapters -- a. Chapter 2: The problem of similarity -- b. Chapter 3: General and particular judgements -- c. Chapter 4: Subjectivism in economics -- d. Chapter 5: Anthropinism -- Notes -- 2 The Problem of Similarity -- 1. The theory of knowledge -- 2. Essence of change -- 3. Knower and known -- 4. Positivism in economics -- 5. Commitment, paradigms and knowing how -- 6. Epilogue -- Notes -- 3 General and Particular Judgements -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The natural attitude -- 3. Inductive generalizations and logical truths -- 4. The innovations of positivism.

5. The facts required for testing hypotheses -- 6. From the natural to the reflective attitude -- a. Relation between general and particular -- b. Testing propositions -- c. The tradition of thought -- d. Philosophical systems -- e. Ontological-.type explanation -- f. Ontology of the intelligible form -- g. Reflection versus ontological explanation -- h. The reflective attitude and transcendental subjectivism -- i. Clarifying potential misunderstandings of reflection -- j. Analysing statements about economic theory and reality -- Notes -- 4 Subjectivism in Economics -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Utility and mechanics -- a. Jevons -- b. Walras -- c. Pareto -- d. Mechanics as a hypothesis in the positivistic sense -- 3. The notion of utility -- a. Utility has a long history in social theory -- b. The interpretation of utilitarianism -- c. Bentham's utilitarianism -- d. Utility in economics -- 4. The notions associated with mechanics and utility respectively proved to be incompatible -- a. The views of Schumpeter and von Mises contrasted -- b. Utility theory yields tautologies -- c. The preoccupation with mechanical notions made utility otiose in economic theory -- 5. Menger recognized the incompatibility of mechanics and utility -- 6. Menger's Aristotelianism -- a. The basis -- 1. The Grunds atze -- 2. Exact laws -- b. Free will, error, ignorance -- 1. The Untersuchungen -- 2. Empirical and exact laws -- 3. Menger's attack on the historical school -- 4. Signals and noise -- c. Menger and the modern Austrians -- 1. The similarity -- 2. The contrast -- d. Menger did not solve the problem relating theory to fact -- Appendix 1: 20th-century strands of Austrian economics -- Appendix 2: Value and demand: subjective and objective theories -- a. Value and price -- b. Usefulness and cost of production -- c. The paradox of value -- d. The labour theory of value.

e. Subjective value theory -- f. The marginal utility theory -- Utility -- Marginal utility -- Diminishing marginal utility -- Consumer equilibrium -- The determinants of the quantity demanded -- Price-quantity relations -- The individual consumer and the market -- g. The wider implications of subjective value theory -- Notes -- 5 Anthropinism -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The particular as explicand -- 3. Meaning and articulation -- 4. The intelligible, the empirical and the real -- 5. The here and now -- 6. Intelligibility -- 7. Determinism, intelligibility -- 8. Articulating subjectivist economics: from ontology to codification -- a. Distinguishing ontological subjectivism from the logic of subjectivism -- b. Implicit definitions and codifying domains of thought -- c. The coherence rule: maintaining consistency within thought domains -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- Index.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.Following on from The Hand Behind the Invisible Hand and A Realist Philosophy of Economics, this new book drawn from Karl Mittermaier's writings examines the intricate relationship between economic theory and real-world economic experiences. Despite the centrality of subjectivism in both philosophy and economics, these fields have often overlooked each other's insights. Mittermaier challenges this disconnect, advocating for a shift from deterministic models to a more reflective approach in economics. He examines the historical, methodological and philosophical dimensions of economic theory, highlighting its struggle to connect economic theory to empirical data and individuals' lived experiences. Originally penned between 1979 and 1982 and now published posthumously, this work remains a crucial contribution to contemporary economic discussions.