Rejoinder to Machaj on Indifference

Walter E. Block

doi:10.62374/bnejq268

Authors

Walter E. Block Loyola University New Orleans

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62374/bnejq268

Keywords:

constituent elements, supply, ceteris paribus, sentimental value, Thymology, serviceability

Abstract

Nozick (1977) was a methodological critique of the Austrian School of economics. He took the view that the praxeological school was guilty of a logical contradiction. On the one hand, it eschews the concept of indifference. On the other, it utilizes that of supply. But, Nozick argued, for there to be any supply of a good, people must be indifferent to constituent elements of it. Block (1980) attempted to answer Nozick’s criticism, making the point that “supply” is a coherent concept, and people are indeed indifferent to units of which it is comprised, but before human action. During human action, there cannot be any such thing as indifference, in the technical sense. Machaj (2007) criticizes both Nozick (1997) and Block (1980). The present paper is a response to Machaj (2007).

References

Block, W. (1980). On Robert Nozick's 'On Austrian Methodology'. Inquiry, 23(4), 397-444. https://doi.org/10.1080/00201748008601918

Block, W., & Barnett, W. II. (Forthcoming). Rejoinder to Hoppe on indifference. Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.

Garrison, R. W. (1985). Predictable Behavior: Comment. American Economic Review, 75(3), 576-578. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1814830

Hoppe, H. H. (2005). Must Austrians Embrace Indifference? Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, 8(4), 87-91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12113-005-1005-6

Long, R. (2004). Realism and Abstraction in Economics: Aristotle and Mises versus Friedman. Available at: http://mises.org/pdf/asc/2004/long.pdf

Machaj, M. (2007). A Praxeological Case for Homogeneity and Indifference. New Perspectives on Political Economy, 3(2), 231-238. https://doi.org/10.62374/b94z8y61

Mises, L. von. (1949). Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. San Francisco: Fox & Wilkes.

Nozick, R. (1977). On Austrian Methodology. Synthese, 36, 353-392. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00486025