[hill.travis18]

Professor Herbner, I am wondering why it isn’t required to believe in free will, in the context that the conscious is the originator of choice or purposeful behavior, if it could be possible for external forces to determine what we choose? How would that mean the action is volitional in the sense that other forces determine how we would act, which would be similar to a rock tumbling down a mountain causes by other external forces outside the rock? Is there something I’m missing?

[jmherbener]

Yes, non-determinism seems necessary to have human action and therefore, economic theory.

Murray Rothbard takes Aristotle’s position that human nature includes volition. Take a look at his monograph, The Mantle of Science:

http://mises.org/rothbard/mantle.asp

Ludwg von Mises takes the “softer”position that natural sciences have not as yet provided a materialistic explanation of human action and, given our ignorance, we must treat human action as if it entails volition.

Take a look at his book Human Action, pp. 105-106.

http://library.mises.org/books/Ludwig%20von%20Mises/Human%20Action.pdf

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