ABSTRACT
The launching pad both for Austrian economic theory and for the methodology associated with it was Menger's writings; to be more precise, his Grundsatze of 1871 and the Untersuchungen of 1883. The "founding" of the Austrian school is a convenient myth, an ex post facto rationalisation, which provides historians of economic thought with a point of origin for an allegedly unified system of thought. Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk proved to be the most prolific writer, purporting to follow the path mapped out by Menger. As it turns out, he was the least philosophically minded of some older Austrians, hardly able to raise himself above the level of mere propaganda. Menger quite clearly refers to the need for a methodology resting on epistemologically sound foundations—that is, on a "correct" explication of the nature and validity of economic knowledge—as well as insisting on clarifying the methodological basis for research in economics.
