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How to be a value-free advocate of laissez faire: Ludwig von Mises's solution.(Point Counterpoint: Can the Advocate of Laissez-Faire Policies Also Claim to be Value Free?)

From: The American Journal of Economics and Sociology  |  Date: 7/1/2005  |  Author: Gunning, J. Patrick

Ludwig von Mises is often regarded as a "champion" of laissez faire. This characterization seems to contradict Mises's clear statement that economics is value free. The aim of this paper is to resolve this apparent contradiction. We accomplish this by distinguishing, as Mises did, between the advocacy of specific laissez-faire policies and the advocacy of a laissez-faire ideology vis-a-vis the alternative ideologies of socialism and interventionism. Mises argued that the logic of a value-free ...

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