WEBVTT NOTE Introduction 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.560 INTRODUCTION 2 00:00:01.560 --> 00:00:08.280 1. METHODOLOGICAL DUALISM 3 00:00:08.280 --> 00:00:14.480 Mortal man does not know how the universe and all that it contains may appear to a superhuman 4 00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:20.340 intelligence. Perhaps such an exalted mind is in a position to elaborate a coherent and 5 00:00:20.340 --> 00:00:28.460 comprehensive monistic interpretation of all phenomena. Man, up to now at least, has always 6 00:00:28.460 --> 00:00:33.860 He's gone lamentably amiss in his attempts to bridge the gulf that he sees yawning between 7 00:00:33.860 --> 00:00:41.740 mind and matter, between the rider and the horse, between the mason and the stone. 8 00:00:41.740 --> 00:00:46.760 It would be preposterous to view this failure as a sufficient demonstration of the soundness 9 00:00:46.760 --> 00:00:49.760 of a dualistic philosophy. 10 00:00:49.760 --> 00:00:55.620 All that we can infer from it is that science, at least for the time being, must adopt a 11 00:00:55.620 --> 00:01:07.300 Methodological Dualism Refrains from any proposition concerning 12 00:01:07.300 --> 00:01:11.020 essences and metaphysical constructs. 13 00:01:11.020 --> 00:01:16.540 It merely takes into account the fact that we do not know how external events, physical, 14 00:01:16.540 --> 00:01:24.160 chemical, and physiological, affect human thoughts, ideas, and judgments of value. 15 00:01:24.160 --> 00:01:30.520 This ignorance splits the realm of knowledge into two separate fields, the realm of external 16 00:01:30.520 --> 00:01:37.840 events, commonly called nature, and the realm of human thought and action. 17 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:44.260 Older ages looked upon the issue from a moral or religious point of view. Materialist monism 18 00:01:44.260 --> 00:01:49.980 was rejected as incompatible with the Christian dualism of the Creator and the creation and 19 00:01:49.980 --> 00:01:54.980 and of the Immortal Soul and the Mortal Body. 20 00:01:54.980 --> 00:01:59.920 Determinism was rejected as incompatible with the fundamental principles of morality as well 21 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:02.960 as with the penal code. 22 00:02:02.960 --> 00:02:09.620 Most of what was advanced in these controversies to support the respective dogmas was unessential 23 00:02:09.620 --> 00:02:14.360 and is irrelevant from the methodological point of view of our day. 24 00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:20.100 The determinists did little more than repeat their thesis again and again without trying 25 00:02:20.100 --> 00:02:22.540 to substantiate it. 26 00:02:22.540 --> 00:02:27.540 The indeterminists denied their adversaries' statements but were unable to strike at their 27 00:02:27.540 --> 00:02:29.140 weak points. 28 00:02:29.140 --> 00:02:32.980 The long debates were not very helpful. 29 00:02:32.980 --> 00:02:39.180 The scope of the controversy changed when the new science of economics entered the scene. 30 00:02:39.180 --> 00:02:43.420 Political parties which passionately rejected all the practical conclusions to which the 31 00:02:43.420 --> 00:02:49.000 The results of economic thought inevitably led, but were unable to raise any tenable 32 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:55.520 objections against their truth and correctness, shifted the arguments to the fields of epistemology 33 00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:58.140 and methodology. 34 00:02:58.140 --> 00:03:02.820 They proclaimed the experimental methods of the natural sciences to be the only adequate 35 00:03:02.820 --> 00:03:09.780 mode of research, and induction from sensory experience the only legitimate mode of scientific 36 00:03:09.780 --> 00:03:11.140 reasoning. 37 00:03:11.140 --> 00:03:17.300 They behaved as if they had never heard about the logical problems involved in induction. 38 00:03:17.300 --> 00:03:23.340 Everything that was neither experimentation nor induction was in their eyes metaphysics, 39 00:03:23.340 --> 00:03:28.460 a term that they employed as synonymous with nonsense. 40 00:03:28.460 --> 00:03:31.540 2. 41 00:03:31.540 --> 00:03:34.660 ECONOMICS AND METAPHYSICS 42 00:03:34.660 --> 00:03:41.000 The sciences of human action start from the fact that man purposefully aims at ends he 43 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:42.620 he has chosen. 44 00:03:42.620 --> 00:03:49.120 It is precisely this that all brands of positivism, behaviorism and panphysicalism want either 45 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:53.780 to deny altogether or to pass over in silence. 46 00:03:53.780 --> 00:03:59.500 Now it would simply be silly to deny the fact that man manifestly behaves as if he were 47 00:03:59.500 --> 00:04:02.280 really aiming at definite ends. 48 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:08.080 Thus the denial of purposefulness in man's attitudes can be sustained only if one assumes 49 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:14.260 that the choosing both of ends and of means is merely apparent and that human behavior 50 00:04:14.260 --> 00:04:19.560 is ultimately determined by physiological events which can be fully described in the 51 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:23.200 terminology of physics and chemistry. 52 00:04:23.200 --> 00:04:30.040 Even the most fanatical champions of the Unified Science sect shrink from unambiguously espousing 53 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:33.800 this blunt formulation of their fundamental thesis. 54 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:36.920 There are good reasons for this reticence. 55 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:42.240 So long as no definite relation is discovered between ideas and physical or chemical events 56 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:48.140 of which they would occur as the regular sequel, the positivist thesis remains an epistemological 57 00:04:48.140 --> 00:04:53.680 postulate derived not from scientifically established experience but from a metaphysical 58 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:55.920 world view. 59 00:04:55.920 --> 00:05:01.080 The positivists tell us that one day a new scientific discipline will emerge which will 60 00:05:01.080 --> 00:05:06.000 will make good their promises and will describe in every detail the physical and chemical 61 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:12.040 processes that produce in the body of man definite ideas. 62 00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:16.420 Let us not quarrel today about such issues of the future. 63 00:05:16.420 --> 00:05:22.600 But it is evident that such a metaphysical proposition can in no way invalidate the results 64 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:26.920 of the discursive reasoning of the sciences of human action. 65 00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:31.880 The positivists, for emotional reasons, do not like the conclusions that acting man must 66 00:05:31.880 --> 00:05:36.640 necessarily draw from the teachings of economics. 67 00:05:36.640 --> 00:05:40.840 As they are not in a position to find any flaw either in the reasoning of economics 68 00:05:40.840 --> 00:05:46.380 or in the inferences derived from it, they resort to metaphysical schemes in order to 69 00:05:46.380 --> 00:05:52.720 discredit the epistemological foundations and the methodological approach of economics. 70 00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:55.960 There is nothing vicious about metaphysics. 71 00:05:55.960 --> 00:05:58.040 cannot do without it. 72 00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:05.160 The positivists are lamentably wrong in employing the term metaphysics as a synonym for nonsense. 73 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:12.000 But no metaphysical proposition must contradict any of the findings of discursive reasoning. 74 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:17.600 Metaphysics is not science, and the appeal to metaphysical notions is vain in the context 75 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:21.480 of a logical examination of scientific problems. 76 00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:27.280 This is true also of the metaphysics of positivism to which its supporters have given the name 77 00:06:27.280 --> 00:06:30.280 of anti-metaphysics. 78 00:06:30.280 --> 00:06:33.080 3. 79 00:06:33.080 --> 00:06:34.440 REGULARITY AND PREDICTION 80 00:06:34.440 --> 00:06:42.720 Epistemologically, the distinctive mark of what we call nature is to be seen in the ascertainable 81 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:48.400 and inevitable regularity in the concatenation and sequence of phenomena. 82 00:06:48.400 --> 00:06:53.500 On the other hand, the distinctive mark of what we call the human sphere, or history, 83 00:06:53.500 --> 00:07:01.720 or better, the realm of human action, is the absence of such a universally prevailing regularity. 84 00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:08.900 Under identical conditions, stones always react to the same stimuli in the same way. 85 00:07:08.900 --> 00:07:13.460 We can learn something about these regular patterns of reacting, and we can make use 86 00:07:13.460 --> 00:07:18.600 The use of this knowledge in directing our actions toward definite goals. 87 00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:24.500 Our classification of natural objects and our assigning names to these classes is an 88 00:07:24.500 --> 00:07:27.260 outcome of this cognition. 89 00:07:27.260 --> 00:07:31.360 A stone is a thing that reacts in a definite way. 90 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:37.340 Men react to the same stimuli in different ways, and the same man, at different instants 91 00:07:37.340 --> 00:07:43.080 of time, may react in ways different from his previous or later conduct. 92 00:07:43.080 --> 00:07:49.800 It is impossible to group men into classes whose members always react in the same way. 93 00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:54.200 This is not to say that future human actions are totally unpredictable. 94 00:07:54.200 --> 00:07:59.320 They can, in a certain way, be anticipated to some extent. 95 00:07:59.320 --> 00:08:05.160 But the methods applied in such anticipations and their scope are logically and epistemologically 96 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:14.880 4. 97 00:08:14.880 --> 00:08:19.600 THE CONCEPT OF THE LAWS OF NATURE 98 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:23.880 Experience is always experience of past happenings. 99 00:08:23.880 --> 00:08:30.560 It refers to what has been and is no longer to events sunk forever in the flux of time. 100 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:36.260 The awareness of regularity in the concatenation and sequence of many phenomena does not affect 101 00:08:36.260 --> 00:08:40.780 this reference of experience to something that occurred once in the past at a definite 102 00:08:40.780 --> 00:08:45.980 place and time, under the circumstances prevailing there and then. 103 00:08:45.980 --> 00:08:51.420 The cognition of regularity, too, refers exclusively to past events. 104 00:08:51.420 --> 00:08:59.900 The most experience can teach us is, in all cases observed in the past, there was an ascertainable 105 00:08:59.900 --> 00:09:07.700 From time immemorial all men of all races and civilizations have taken it for granted 106 00:09:07.700 --> 00:09:12.940 that the regularity observed in the past will also prevail in the future. 107 00:09:12.940 --> 00:09:18.900 The category of causality and the idea that natural events will in the future follow the 108 00:09:18.900 --> 00:09:25.300 same pattern they showed in the past are fundamental principles of human thought as well as of 109 00:09:25.300 --> 00:09:27.660 human action. 110 00:09:27.660 --> 00:09:32.980 Our material civilization is the product of conduct guided by them. 111 00:09:32.980 --> 00:09:38.220 Any doubt concerning their validity within the sphere of past human action is dispelled 112 00:09:38.220 --> 00:09:42.260 by the results of technological designing. 113 00:09:42.260 --> 00:09:48.740 History teaches us irrefutably that our forefathers and we ourselves up to this very moment have 114 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:51.920 acted wisely in adopting them. 115 00:09:51.920 --> 00:09:57.440 They are true in the sense that pragmatism attaches to the concept of truth, they work 116 00:09:57.440 --> 00:10:02.640 or more precisely, they have worked in the past. 117 00:10:02.640 --> 00:10:08.600 Leaving aside the problem of causality with its metaphysical implications, we have to realize 118 00:10:08.600 --> 00:10:13.360 that the natural sciences are based entirely on the assumption that a regular conjunction 119 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:17.580 of phenomena prevails in the realm they investigate. 120 00:10:17.580 --> 00:10:22.880 They do not search merely for frequent conjunction, but for a regularity that prevailed without 121 00:10:22.880 --> 00:10:27.920 are without exception in all cases observed in the past and is expected to prevail in 122 00:10:27.920 --> 00:10:32.800 the same way in all cases to be observed in the future. 123 00:10:32.800 --> 00:10:39.580 Where they can discover only a frequent conjunction, as is often the case in biology, for example, 124 00:10:39.580 --> 00:10:44.160 they assume that it is solely the inadequacy of our methods of inquiry that prevents us 125 00:10:44.160 --> 00:10:48.780 temporarily from discovering strict regularity. 126 00:10:48.780 --> 00:10:55.400 The two concepts of invariable and of frequent conjunction must not be confused. 127 00:10:55.400 --> 00:11:01.260 In referring to invariable conjunction, people mean that no deviation from the regular pattern, 128 00:11:01.260 --> 00:11:06.860 the law of conjunction, has ever been observed, and that they are certain, as far as men can 129 00:11:06.860 --> 00:11:13.880 be certain about anything, that no such deviation is possible and will ever happen. 130 00:11:13.880 --> 00:11:18.920 The best elucidation of the idea of inexorable regularity in the concatenation of natural 131 00:11:18.920 --> 00:11:23.840 phenomena is provided by the concept of miracles. 132 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:28.880 A miraculous event is something that simply cannot happen in the normal course of world 133 00:11:28.880 --> 00:11:34.680 affairs as we know it, because its happening could not be accounted for by the laws of 134 00:11:34.680 --> 00:11:36.440 nature. 135 00:11:36.440 --> 00:11:41.740 If nonetheless the occurrence of such an event is reported, two different interpretations 136 00:11:41.740 --> 00:11:47.800 are provided, both of which, however, fully agree in taking for granted the inexorability 137 00:11:47.800 --> 00:11:50.340 of the laws of nature. 138 00:11:50.340 --> 00:11:54.760 The devout say, This could not happen in the normal course of affairs. 139 00:11:54.760 --> 00:11:59.660 It came to pass only because the Lord has the power to act without being restricted 140 00:11:59.660 --> 00:12:01.760 by the laws of nature. 141 00:12:01.760 --> 00:12:06.640 It is an event incomprehensible and inexplicable for the human mind. 142 00:12:06.640 --> 00:12:09.960 It is a mystery, a miracle. 143 00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:15.700 The rationalists say, it could not happen and therefore it did not happen. 144 00:12:15.700 --> 00:12:20.060 The reporters were either liars or victims of a delusion. 145 00:12:20.060 --> 00:12:25.780 If the concept of laws of nature were to mean not inexorable regularity but merely frequent 146 00:12:25.780 --> 00:12:31.360 connection, the notion of miracles would never have been conceived. 147 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:37.500 One would simply say, A is frequently followed by B, but in some instances this effect failed 148 00:12:37.500 --> 00:12:39.860 to appear. 149 00:12:39.860 --> 00:12:45.340 Nobody says that stones thrown into the air at an angle of 45 degrees will frequently 150 00:12:45.340 --> 00:12:53.700 fall down to earth, or that a human limb lost by an accident frequently does not grow again. 151 00:12:53.700 --> 00:12:59.780 All our thinking and all our actions are guided by the knowledge that in such cases we are 152 00:12:59.780 --> 00:13:06.580 not faced with frequent repetition of the same connection but with regular repetition. 153 00:13:06.580 --> 00:13:08.800 5. 154 00:13:08.800 --> 00:13:12.740 THE LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE 155 00:13:12.740 --> 00:13:17.340 Human knowledge is conditioned by the power of the human mind and by the extent of the 156 00:13:17.340 --> 00:13:22.140 sphere in which objects evoke human sensations. 157 00:13:22.140 --> 00:13:26.420 Perhaps there are in the universe things that our senses cannot perceive and relations that 158 00:13:26.420 --> 00:13:29.320 our minds cannot comprehend. 159 00:13:29.320 --> 00:13:34.300 There may also exist outside of the orbit we call the universe, other systems of things 160 00:14:04.300 --> 00:14:07.760 be replaced by another arrangement. 161 00:14:07.760 --> 00:14:13.980 Such and similar thoughts may induce in a conscientious scientist the utmost caution 162 00:14:13.980 --> 00:14:16.820 in formulating the results of his studies. 163 00:14:16.820 --> 00:14:22.260 It behooves the philosopher to be still more restrained in dealing with the a priori categories 164 00:14:22.260 --> 00:14:27.980 of causality and the regularity in the sequence of natural phenomena. 165 00:14:27.980 --> 00:14:33.320 The a priori forms and categories of human thinking and reasoning cannot be traced back 166 00:14:33.320 --> 00:14:44.400 It is contradictory to expect that logic could be of any service in demonstrating the correctness 167 00:14:44.400 --> 00:14:48.080 or validity of the fundamental logical principles. 168 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:53.120 All that can be said about them is that to deny their correctness or validity appears 169 00:14:53.120 --> 00:15:00.160 to the human mind nonsensical and that thinking guided by them has led to modes of successful 170 00:15:00.160 --> 00:15:01.160 acting. 171 00:15:01.160 --> 00:15:07.640 Hume's skepticism was the reaction to a postulate of absolute certainty that is forever unattainable 172 00:15:07.640 --> 00:15:09.520 to man. 173 00:15:09.520 --> 00:15:15.200 Those divines who saw that nothing but revelation could provide man with perfect certainty were 174 00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:16.540 right. 175 00:15:16.540 --> 00:15:22.160 Human scientific inquiry cannot proceed beyond the limits drawn by the insufficiency of man's 176 00:15:22.160 --> 00:15:25.420 senses and the narrowness of his mind. 177 00:15:25.420 --> 00:15:30.620 There is no deductive demonstration possible of the principle of causality and of the ampliative 178 00:15:30.620 --> 00:15:56.100 6. 179 00:15:56.100 --> 00:16:00.100 REGULARITY AND CHOOSING 180 00:16:00.100 --> 00:16:05.840 The main fact about human action is that, in regard to it, there is no such regularity 181 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:07.840 in the conjunction of phenomena. 182 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:12.760 It is not a shortcoming of the sciences of human action that they have not succeeded 183 00:16:12.760 --> 00:16:16.840 in discovering determinate stimulus-response patterns. 184 00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:20.620 What does not exist cannot be discovered. 185 00:16:20.620 --> 00:16:25.700 If there were no regularity in nature, it would be impossible to assert anything with 186 00:16:25.700 --> 00:16:29.640 regard to the behavior of classes of objects. 187 00:16:29.640 --> 00:16:34.380 One would have to study the individual cases and to combine what one has learned about 188 00:16:34.380 --> 00:16:38.000 them into a historical account. 189 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:42.820 Let us, for the sake of argument, assume that all those physical quantities that we 190 00:16:42.820 --> 00:16:49.080 call constants are in fact continually changing and that the inadequacy of our methods of 191 00:16:49.080 --> 00:16:54.800 inquiry alone prevents us from becoming aware of these slow changes. 192 00:16:54.800 --> 00:17:00.440 We do not take account of them because they have no perceptible influence upon our conditions 193 00:17:00.440 --> 00:17:04.320 and do not noticeably affect the outcome of our actions. 194 00:17:04.320 --> 00:17:10.920 Therefore, one could say that these quantities established by the experimental natural sciences 195 00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:16.480 may fairly be looked upon as constants since they remain unchanged during a period of time 196 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:21.720 that by far exceeds the ages for which we may plan to provide. 197 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:26.960 But it is not permissible to argue in an analogous way with regard to the quantities we observe 198 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:29.560 in the field of human action. 199 00:17:29.560 --> 00:17:33.400 These quantities are manifestly variable. 200 00:17:33.400 --> 00:17:38.180 Changes occurring in them plainly affect the result of our actions. 201 00:17:38.180 --> 00:17:44.160 Every quantity that we can observe is a historical event, a fact which cannot be fully described 202 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:48.880 without specifying the time and geographical point. 203 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:54.760 The econometrician is unable to disprove this fact, which cuts the ground from under his 204 00:17:54.760 --> 00:17:56.040 reasoning. 205 00:17:56.040 --> 00:18:00.000 He cannot help admitting that there are no behavior constants. 206 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:06.480 Nonetheless, he wants to introduce some numbers arbitrarily chosen on the basis of a historical 207 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:11.240 fact as unknown behavior constants. 208 00:18:11.240 --> 00:18:17.800 The sole excuse he advances is that his hypotheses are, saying only that these unknown numbers 209 00:18:47.800 --> 00:18:54.840 A reasonably constant ratio prevailed between the numerical values of two factors. 210 00:18:54.840 --> 00:18:59.080 But this is something fundamentally different from the constants of physics. 211 00:18:59.080 --> 00:19:04.240 It is the assertion of a historical fact, not of a constant that can be resorted to 212 00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:08.120 in attempts to predict future events. 213 00:19:08.120 --> 00:19:13.760 Leaving aside for the present any reference to the problem of the human will or free will, 214 00:19:13.760 --> 00:19:21.120 We may say, non-human entities react according to regular patterns man chooses. 215 00:19:21.120 --> 00:19:26.520 Man chooses first ultimate ends and then the means to attain them. 216 00:19:26.520 --> 00:19:32.320 These acts of choosing are determined by thoughts and ideas about which, at least for the time 217 00:19:32.320 --> 00:19:38.100 being, the natural sciences do not know how to give us any information. 218 00:19:38.100 --> 00:19:42.760 In the mathematical treatment of physics, the distinction between constants and variables 219 00:19:42.760 --> 00:19:44.320 This makes sense. 220 00:19:44.320 --> 00:19:48.680 It is essential in every instance of technological computation. 221 00:19:48.680 --> 00:19:53.720 In economics, there are no constant relations between various magnitudes. 222 00:19:53.720 --> 00:20:01.080 Consequently, all ascertainable data are variables, or what amounts to the same thing, historical 223 00:20:01.080 --> 00:20:02.320 data. 224 00:20:02.320 --> 00:20:07.520 The mathematical economists reiterate that the plight of mathematical economics consists 225 00:20:07.520 --> 00:20:11.260 in the fact that there are a great number of variables. 226 00:20:11.260 --> 00:20:16.260 The truth is that there are only variables and no constants. 227 00:20:16.260 --> 00:20:22.060 It is pointless to talk of variables where there are no invariables. 228 00:20:22.060 --> 00:20:24.900 7. 229 00:20:24.900 --> 00:20:31.420 Means and Ends To choose is to pick one out of two or more 230 00:20:31.420 --> 00:20:36.780 possible modes of conduct and to set aside the alternatives. 231 00:20:36.780 --> 00:20:41.380 Whatever a human being is in a situation in which various modes of behavior precluding 232 00:20:41.380 --> 00:20:45.300 one another are open to him, he chooses. 233 00:20:45.300 --> 00:20:50.500 Thus life implies an endless sequence of acts of choosing. 234 00:20:50.500 --> 00:20:54.420 Action is conduct directed by choices. 235 00:20:54.420 --> 00:20:59.660 The mental acts that determine the content of a choice refer either to ultimate ends 236 00:20:59.660 --> 00:21:03.100 or to the means to attain ultimate ends. 237 00:21:03.100 --> 00:21:06.140 The former are called judgments of value. 238 00:21:06.140 --> 00:21:11.300 The latter are technical decisions derived from factual propositions. 239 00:21:11.300 --> 00:21:18.060 In the strict sense of the term, acting man aims only at one ultimate end, at the attainment 240 00:21:18.060 --> 00:21:22.880 of a state of affairs that suits him better than the alternatives. 241 00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:28.340 Philosophers and economists describe this undeniable fact by declaring that man prefers 242 00:21:28.340 --> 00:21:34.420 what makes him happier to what makes him less happy, that he aims at happiness. 243 00:21:34.420 --> 00:21:38.900 There is no need to refute anew the arguments advanced for more than two thousand years 244 00:21:38.900 --> 00:21:44.100 against the principles of eudaimonism, hedonism and utilitarianism. 245 00:21:44.100 --> 00:21:49.660 For an exposition of the formal and subjectivistic character of the concepts pleasure and pain 246 00:21:49.660 --> 00:21:55.220 as employed in the context of these doctrines, see Mises, Human Action. 247 00:21:55.220 --> 00:22:00.700 Of course, those who recognize no happiness but that given by the orgasm, alcohol and 248 00:22:00.700 --> 00:22:05.940 and so forth, continue to repeat the old errors and distortions. 249 00:22:05.940 --> 00:22:12.700 Happiness, in the purely formal sense in which ethical theory applies the term, is the only 250 00:22:12.700 --> 00:22:20.120 ultimate end, and all other things and states of affair sought are merely means to the realization 251 00:22:20.120 --> 00:22:22.580 of the supreme ultimate end. 252 00:22:22.580 --> 00:22:28.140 It is customary, however, to employ a less precise mode of expression, frequently assigning 253 00:22:28.140 --> 00:22:32.700 MAKING THE NAME OF ULTIMATE ENDS TO ALL THOSE MEANS THAT ARE FIT TO PRODUCE SATISFACTION 254 00:22:32.700 --> 00:22:35.660 DIRECTLY AND IMMEDIATELY. 255 00:22:35.660 --> 00:22:41.420 THE CHARACTERISTIC MARK OF ULTIMATE ENDS IS THAT THEY DEPEND ENTIRELY ON EACH INDIVIDUAL'S 256 00:22:41.420 --> 00:22:47.800 PERSONAL AND SUBJECTIVE JUDGMENT WHICH CANNOT BE EXAMINED, MEASURED, STILL LESS CORRECTED 257 00:22:47.800 --> 00:22:50.580 BY ANY OTHER PERSON. 258 00:22:50.580 --> 00:22:56.420 EACH INDIVIDUAL IS THE ONLY AND FINAL ARBITER IN MATTERS CONCERNING HIS OWN SATISFACTION 259 00:22:56.420 --> 00:22:58.560 and Happiness. 260 00:22:58.560 --> 00:23:04.380 As this fundamental cognition is often considered to be incompatible with the Christian doctrine, 261 00:23:04.380 --> 00:23:08.980 it may be proper to illustrate its truth by examples drawn from the early history of the 262 00:23:08.980 --> 00:23:10.860 Christian creed. 263 00:23:10.860 --> 00:23:16.440 The martyrs rejected what others considered supreme delights in order to win salvation 264 00:23:16.440 --> 00:23:18.500 and eternal bliss. 265 00:23:18.500 --> 00:23:23.060 They did not heed their well-meaning fellows who exhorted them to save their lives by bowing 266 00:23:23.060 --> 00:23:29.020 to the Statue of the Divine Emperor, but chose to die for their cause rather than to preserve 267 00:23:29.020 --> 00:23:33.640 their lives by forfeiting everlasting happiness in heaven. 268 00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:39.740 What arguments could a man bring forward who wanted to dissuade his fellows from martyrdom? 269 00:23:39.740 --> 00:23:44.920 He could try to undermine the spiritual foundations of his faith in the message of the Gospels 270 00:23:44.920 --> 00:23:47.780 and their interpretation by the Church. 271 00:23:47.780 --> 00:23:51.900 This would have been an attempt to shake the Christian's confidence in the efficacy of 272 00:23:51.900 --> 00:23:52.900 of Money. 273 00:23:52.900 --> 00:24:02.500 If this failed, further argument could avail nothing, for what remained was the decision 274 00:24:02.500 --> 00:24:09.900 between two ultimate ends, the choice between eternal bliss and eternal damnation. 275 00:24:09.900 --> 00:24:15.420 Then martyrdom appeared the means to attain an end which in the martyr's opinion warranted 276 00:24:15.420 --> 00:24:19.440 supreme and everlasting happiness. 277 00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:25.020 As soon as people venture to question and to examine an end, they no longer look upon 278 00:24:25.020 --> 00:24:31.340 it as an end but deal with it as a means to attain a still higher end. 279 00:24:31.340 --> 00:24:35.240 The ultimate end is beyond any rational examination. 280 00:24:35.240 --> 00:24:38.260 All other ends are but provisional. 281 00:24:38.260 --> 00:24:44.540 They turn into means as soon as they are weighed against other ends or means. 282 00:24:44.540 --> 00:24:50.440 Mises are judged and appreciated according to their ability to produce definite effects. 283 00:24:50.440 --> 00:24:56.780 While judgments of value are personal, subjective and final, judgments about means are essentially 284 00:24:56.780 --> 00:25:02.940 inferences drawn from factual propositions concerning the power of the means in question 285 00:25:02.940 --> 00:25:05.880 to produce definite effects. 286 00:25:05.880 --> 00:25:10.740 About the power of a means to produce a definite effect, there can be dissension and dispute 287 00:25:10.740 --> 00:25:12.480 between men. 288 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:18.980 For the evaluation of ultimate ends, there is no interpersonal standard available. 289 00:25:18.980 --> 00:25:24.280 Choosing means is a technical problem, as it were, the term technique being taken in 290 00:25:24.280 --> 00:25:27.040 its broadest sense. 291 00:25:27.040 --> 00:25:32.760 Choosing ultimate ends is a personal, subjective, individual affair. 292 00:25:32.760 --> 00:25:35.800 Choosing means is a matter of reason. 293 00:25:35.800 --> 00:25:39.680 Building Ultimate Ends, A Matter of the Soul and the Will.