Volume 12, Number 4 (2009)
So, what is “the enduring significance of Robbins” — the title of this article. For me, it is the stimulus given by Robbins’s Essay for reflection on the uniqueness of the Misesian conception of our subject. Only then can one see its resultant immunity from the critical brickbats hurled Robbins’s way since 1932. Mises and Robbins share a methodologically individualistic perspective, but their differences in exploring its implications are crucial. In his own admirable attempt to extend the methodological perspective of Wicksteed and the Austrian School, Robbins goes very far toward a true grasp of the subject matter, but his grasp falls short of his reach in comparison with Mises. Economics as a science of economizing must yield in generality to economics as a science of human action if a theory of the market process is what is sought.
