Those who have derided the Austrian school as a “cult” or as having “amen sessions” should see the Rothbard Graduate Seminar this week. It is clear that Mises and Rothbard are held in high regard. But it is also obvious that both the professors and students like nothing better than finding ways in which the masters erred. The underlying motivation that ties both the respect for past masters and the desire to find mistakes in them is the love of the beautiful edifice that (good) economics has built over the last centuries. Mises and Rothbard are held in high regard not due to some kind of cult of personality, but because the gathered scholars from all over the world have recognized what enormous contributions they both made to that edifice. We read their work closely because their insights into the way the world works are highly persuasive and deal with nearly all areas of economic inquiry. We look for errors because we want to build and refine their great work to yield an ever more insightful body of economic science.
The RGS
