ABSTRACT
In his book on Weber, Lachmann sets out a framework for investigating human action, which he retained in his final works (e.g. Lachmann 1990). Lachmann’s analysis is interesting for a number of reasons. First, from the perspective of the history of Austrian economics, Lachmann must have been aware of the extent to which his approach would be controversial. Lachmann claims to ‘carry forward Weber’s ideas in the circumstances of today’ (Lachmann 1971:1), although recognising that Weber, as a student of Schmoller, ‘remained very much the heir of the German Historical School all his life’ (ibid.: 17). This, of course, was the very school that Menger had subjected to a rather vitriolic attack. Further, Weber was a friend of, and influenced by, Rickert, whom Mises had similarly accused of being ‘bound to historicism’ (Mises 1981:5).1 There thus arises the suspicion that, in drawing his analysis of human action from the one provided by Weber, Lachmann may be adopting a perspective that earlier Austrians had specifically rejected.
