ABSTRACT
Some readers may feel that in doubting whether there is much scope in economics for empirical generalisations of a comprehensive character, applying equally to future and past, we have gone too far. They may remind us that in the Austrian tradition all economic action is embedded in a network of means and ends.…Mises even attributed a priori character to the network of means and ends, and Hayek in 1937 spoke of this part of economics as the ‘pure logic of choice’. It is indeed evident that all human activity is purposeful. Why should such a body of thought have to be regarded as incapable of providing a solid basis for empirical generalisations of the kind mentioned?
