Author Michael Shermer calls The Mind of the Market “an exercise in consciousness-raising for freedom.” And his work shows that science is on Mises’s side. FULL ARTICLE by Doug French
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/12737/rationality-and-the-market-economy/
Rationality and the Market Economy
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Great review, Mr French. I remember when this book first came out and one of your colleagues at Mises.org reviewed it in less than positive terms. I think this one does Mr Shermer’s book much more justice.
I stand by my review here. Mr. French probably had low expectations that Shermer met, and possibly even exceeded. I know Shermer’s intellectual roots and expected more than the lukewarm advocacy of markets he presented.
Perhaps Mr. French hopes to attract fans of Michael Shermer to the Austrian economic perspective by speaking kindly of him.
..as is your right. Have to agree with you on the sanctimoniousness of the N’Avi though…
Too many compielnmts too little space, thanks!
Shermer is known for his work as a skeptic. He debunks claims, such as spoon-bending with the mind etc. He is somewhat of a James Randi in that respect.
However, he also seems to have caved in on the “global warming” or “climate change” issue. He has a video where he says people need to be skeptical of claims, but then without explaining, he simply states that he’s check the climate issue and finds it to be valid.
It seems to me that he is simply not wanting to buck the overwhelming (political and popular) notion that because a large number of “scientists” have gotten behind the claim that man and co2 are the evil cause of warming somewhere on the earth, that the earth is in danger from humans.
I am not certain of which side to be on in that issue, but I tend to feel that science is not being used to come to a conclusion; rather, pressure and consensus is more at play. The tremendous amount of different sciences that need to be mastered to make a firm conclusion are beyond most individual humans, including those that specialize in climate studies. In addition, the amount of unverified computer modeling that is relied upon for future prediction is staggering. Very little in the way of repeatable experimentation seems to be described anywhere. To anyone in that field, it is appropriate to be a skeptic. Yet Shermer dismissed skepticism in a sentence or two. I could almost see him shivering in his boots. Clearly, he did not want to jeopardize his reputation as being a “good” skeptic.
To see his video production go here:
http://richarddawkins.net/videos/3986-rdf-tv-the-baloney-detection-kit
Says French, “Science has proved that humans are capable of good and evil.”
Only if science recognizes “good” and “evil,” which are often dismissed as “unscientific.”
Google not evil? Google transparent? Google not in bed with government? What Google on what planet? This is halfway to saying markets are the most efficient allocators of capital, and then pointing to Enron or GS.
Looks like Google is slowly embracing ‘the dark side’, eh?
Fact is, Shermer is one of the better ones out there (among the skeptic camp). If you go to the James Randi forum, for instance, and peek at any postings on economics, the place is filled with Marxians and other sorts of anti-capitalists.
“If you go to the James Randi forum, for instance, and peek at any postings on economics, the place is filled with Marxians and other sorts of anti-capitalists.”
That forum is lame to say the least. There, you will find a cavalcade of banal economic fallacies, and the only mention of AE is within the context of ridicule.
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