Carl Menger
Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences.
Auburn, Alabama: The Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2009. Translation by Francis J. Nock of "Untersuchungen uber die Methode der Sozialwissenschaften und der Politischen Oekonomie insbesondere" (1883). Edited by Louis Schneider. With a new introduction by Lawrence H. White. 0814753973 xxi/237 pages.
Softcover volume, measuring approximately 6.25" x 9.25", displays very light shelfwear. Binding is sound. Pages are clean and bright.
"The famed "Methodenstreit" of the late 19th century was the battle of method. It pitted the emerging Austrian School against the German Historical School over a critically important question: what is the proper way to do social science? Here Carl Menger, the founder of the School, vindicates the importance of theory, and lays the foundation for later developments by Mises and others.
The book was written twelve years after his principles book, and it sought to deal with the hostility with which that book was greeted by the German world. Menger argues that economics can and must be more than an effort at observing, collecting and assembling data. It can make general observations about the laws of economics that operate independently of time and place."