ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the general intellectual framework, the geistesgeschichtliche background of Menger's economic thought—of his economic theory and his methodology. It looks at both the methodology embodied in the Grundsatze and the methodology expounded in his Untersuchungen. Meriger's aim in writing the Grundsatze was to put economic theory on sound foundations. Of particular interest is the relative importance Menger ascribes to specific authors or groups of authors. It is this which makes it so easy to locate him firmly within the German tradition. With respect to Menger's analytic concepts, his notion that goods serve to satisfy Bedurfnisse is as universal in the German literature as accepting that Bedurfnisbefriedigung, the satisfaction of human needs and wants, is the telos and hence the basis of all economic activity. Menger's aim, to put economic theory on a sound foundation by basing it on sound value theory, by the theorists and historians of his theory, in the way it was understood by its author.
