ИПИ Библиотека

The Economic Point of View is the inaugural volume in Liberty Fund’s new Collected Works of Israel M. Kirzner series. This work established Kirzner as a careful and meticulous scholar of economics. No other living economist is so closely associated with the Austrian School of economics as Israel M. Kirzner, professor emeritus of economics at New York University. He has been a leader of the generation of Austrian School economists following Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek.
In The Economic Point of View, Kirzner explores the basic ideas around which the entire body of economic thought has revolved for some two centuries. He explains how the “economic point of view” emerged in the development of economic science since the eighteenth century and through it, the concepts of purpose, subjectivism, and rationality. Kirzner’s incomparable ability to navigate through the core ideas of economics helps the reader become progressively familiar with the history of the discipline and its definition.
Within the seven chapters, Kirzner discusses such subjects as the science of wealth and welfare; the nature of economic science and the significance of macroeconomics; and the sciences as human action, including a section on praxeology and its relationship to the economic point of view. As Mises writes in his foreword to the volume, “Dr. Kirzner’s book . . . is a very valuable contribution to the history of ideas, describing the march of economics from a science of wealth to a science of human action. . . . Every economist—and for that matter everybody interested in problems of general epistemology—will read with great profit Doctor Kirzner’s analyses.”

"The formulation of the nature of the economic point of view is, of course, intimately related to discussions concerning the scope of economics. The problem of the scope of economics, however, has frequently involved questions with which this essay has nothing to do, and it is perhaps worthwhile to make this clear at the outset. Marshall once wrote to John Maynard Keynes: “It is true of almost every science that, the longer one studies it, the larger its scope seems to be: though in fact its scope may have remained almost unchanged. But the subject matter of economics grows apace...”

Israel M. Kirzner

Israel Meir Kirzner (Yisroel Mayer Kirzner) (1930) is a leading economist in the Austrian School.

After studying with the University of Cape Town, South Africa in 1947-48 and with the University of London External Programme in 1950-51, Kirzner received his B.A. summa cum laude from Brooklyn College in 1954, an MBA in 1955 and Ph.D. from New York University in 1957 (studying under Ludwig von Mises).

Kirzner's major work is in the economics of knowledge and entrepreneurship and the ethics of markets. He is emeritus professor of economics at New York University, and is a leading authority on Ludwig von Mises’' thinking and methodology in economics. Kirzner's research on entrepreneurship economics is also widely recognized In 2006, Kirzner received the Global Award for Entrepreuneurship Research "for developing the economic theory emphasizing the importance of the entrepreneur for economic growth and the functioning of the capitalist process."

No other economist in recent times has been so closely identified with Austrian School of economics as Israel M. Kirzner.