Individuals must be understood prior to understanding the masses.  There is a fundamental difference between the physical sciences and the science of man.  The physical sciences can do experiments.  They can control for changes.  Experiments can’t be done in the science of man.  Humans act with a definite purpose.  That is, they have a conscience.  They have an end in mind they are trying to achieve.

Humans are always aiming at a definite goal or have a reason.  The action takes place to move closer towards that goal.  No human would ever take an action to move further from his goal.  That is very logical.  Every human has a goal, and these goals can’t be predicted based on history.  The method between the physical sciences and the science of man are different but the logic is always the same. 

There are two methods but only one logic.  Like Goethe said, “We are all doing it; very few of us understand what we are doing.”  All of us deal with an uncertain future.  Think about it.  How many of you conduct experiments for the actions you will take?  It’s pseudo-science to conduct experiments in dealing with human action.  There are no quantitative constants in human action.  It’s impossible to place human action into a formula.

Every entrepreneur is a human, but not every human is an entrepreneur.  We are all dealing with uncertain futures, but some are better in anticipating the future than others.  There’s a reason that mathematical economists are not entrepreneurs—these mathematical formulas don’t work with human action.  They would perfectly predict the outcome of every human action and would be competing for the world’s richest man.

There are weights and measures, but these are always for the physical sciences.  Nothing can be weighted nor measured in the science of man.  The mathematical position in economics can’t be argued.  It’s illogical and any attempt to use logic would be met with name calling—at best.  I am not biased nor politically partial.  I’m sincere in my attempt to shed light on the use of logic in human action and how it differs from the physical sciences.

Reference

Ludwig von Mises; The Free Market and Its Enemies