Auto-SummaryThe post discusses whether human actions can be predicted by mathematical models, referencing the scientific method. The author argues that while the scientific method observes rather than predicts, predicting human behavior with models is flawed due to the inability to fully understand motivations. The Austrian School is then critiqued for attempting to predict human action, which the author deems unnecessary and similar to "making shit up." Libertarianism is traced back to the Enlightenment, emphasizing reason, skepticism, and the rejection of tradition and faith. The post concludes by highlighting how Enlightenment ideals influenced libertarian thought.
viktor said:
Shins said:
do you really think that human action can be predicted by mathematical models?
I do, because this is pretty much what the scientific method is. What would the alternative be?
scientific method does not necessarly seek to predict the future, just to observe what is.
the alternative would be to observe human actions after or as they happen.
but even then you cannot make proper observations because you can never know in totality what motivated someone's action.
trying to predict human action with mathematical models is like using improper controls in a scientific experiment - the results are skewed from reality.
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It seems like the alternative is someone just making shit up, and it appears that this is the basis of the Austrian School.
absolutely not, the austrian school does not seek to predict human action; it is unessecary, but only to free it from force and coercion.
its the keynsian economists who are "making shit up" with their false aggregates and "improper controls."
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It really does seem like someone decided that they didn't like the government and so they made up a pseudoreligious economic doctrine that asserts the government is bad.
libertarianism arose out of the age of enlightenment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment
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The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment or Age of Reason) was a cultural movement of intellectuals in the 17th and 18th centuries, first in Europe and later in the American colonies. Its purpose was to reform society using reason, challenge ideas grounded in tradition and faith, and advance knowledge through the scientific method. It promoted science, skepticism and intellectual interchange and opposed superstition,[1] intolerance and some abuses by church and state.
Originating about 1650 to 1700, it was sparked by philosophers Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), John Locke (1632–1704), Pierre Bayle (1647–1706), physicist Isaac Newton (1643–1727), [2] and philosopher Voltaire (1694–1778). Ruling princes often endorsed and fostered figures and even attempted to apply their ideas of government in what was known as Enlightened Despotism. The Enlightenment flourished until about 1790–1800, after which the emphasis on reason gave way to Romanticism's emphasis on emotion and a Counter-Enlightenment gained force.[3]
In France, Enlightenment was based in the salons and culminated in the great Encyclopédie (1751–72) edited by Denis Diderot (1713–1784) with contributions by hundreds of leading philosophes (intellectuals) such as Voltaire (1694–1778), Rousseau (1712–1778) [4] and Montesquieu (1689–1755). Some 25,000 copies of the 35 volume set were sold, half of them outside France. The new intellectual forces spread to urban centres across Europe, notably England, Scotland, the German states, the Netherlands, Russia, Italy, Austria, and Spain, then jumped the Atlantic into the European colonies, where it influenced Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, among many others, and played a major role in the American Revolution. The political ideals of the Enlightenment influenced the American Declaration of Independence, the United States Bill of Rights, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and the Polish–Lithuanian Constitution of May 3, 1791.[5]
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Zafirovski, (2010) argues that The Enlightenment is the source of critical ideas, such as the centrality of freedom, democracy, and reason as primary values of society – as opposed to the divine right of kings or traditions as the ruling authority.[47] This view argues that the establishment of a contractual basis of rights would lead to the market mechanism and capitalism, the scientific method, religious tolerance, and the organization of states into self-governing republics through democratic means. In this view, the tendency of the philosophes in particular to apply rationality to every problem is considered the essential change.
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more philosophical example of this was the 1783 essay contest (in itself an activity typical of the Enlightenment) announced by the Berlin newspaper Berlinische Monatsschrift, which asked that very question: "What is Enlightenment?" Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn was among those who responded, referring to Enlightenment as a process by which man was educated in the use of reason (Jerusalem, 1783).[124] Immanuel Kant also wrote a response, referring to Enlightenment as "man's release from his self-incurred tutelage", tutelage being "man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism
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History
[edit]Eighteenth century
[edit]Age of enlightenment
John Locke
See also: Age of enlightenment, Anarchism, and Classical liberalism
During the 18th century, classical liberal ideas flourished in Europe and North America. Libertarians of various schools were influenced by classical liberal ideas.[38] The term libertarian in a metaphysical or philosophical sense was first used by late-Enlightenment free-thinkers to refer to those who believed in free will, as opposed to determinism.[39] The first recorded use was in 1789 by William Belsham in a discussion of free will and in opposition to "necessitarian" (or determinist) views.[40][41] In 1793, William Godwin wrote Political Justice, which some consider to be the first expression of anarchism.[42][43][44] Godwin opposed revolutionary action and saw a minimal state as a present "necessary evil" that would become increasingly irrelevant and powerless by the gradual spread of knowledge.[43][45]
The writings of John Locke became influential during this time. Locke's political theory was founded on social contract theory. Unlike Thomas Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature is characterised by reason and tolerance. Like Hobbes, Locke believed that human nature allowed men to be selfish. This is apparent with the introduction of currency. In a natural state all people were equal and independent, and everyone had a natural right to defend his “Life, health, Liberty, or Possessions".[46] This became the basis for the phrase in the American Declaration of Independence: "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".
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