Ludwig von mises, sociology, and metatheory

Abstract

This paper discusses the epistemological status and potential scope of the discipline of sociology based on the writings of Ludwig von Mises. More specifically, it presents his epistemological distinction between theory and history, and argues that sociology can be integrated in this framework as a historical discipline. As such, it must be a praxeologically guided study of general or specific social phenomena that already occurred or are likely to occur. Additionally, this paper addresses the general insights provided by Mises to questions of interest to the field of sociology— the division of labor and the evolution of society, the social effects of socialism and capitalism, class analysis, and the role of ideas in social change—in order to infer from it the general tasks that sociology, as a historical discipline, can accomplish in its study of social phenomena.