Dehomogenizing Robbins and Mises on Methodology

Abstract

Lionel Robbins’s 'An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science' is frequently cited as one of the most influential works on economic methodology of the twentieth century. Yet, paradoxically, Robbins’s Essay is also generally acknowledged to have been significantly influenced by the controversial and widely rejected methodological views of Ludwig von Mises. This article examines a number of subtle but significant areas in which Robbins’s Essay can be seen to diverge from Mises’s methodological writings, in order to not only clarify both men’s views, but also to gain some insight into the causes behind the widely divergent extent to which their works have been adopted into the canon of economic orthodoxy.