On Philosophy
Comment posted by Alex at Mises.org:
“Most Austrians have come from more mainstream economic backgrounds. They have found that empirical research into economics is faulty, as it needs to be interpreted by theory. Numbers don’t tell you anything – and numbers themselves are not physical objects! They themselves are merely ‘ideas’, or, put another way, ideas of philosophy.
Even if numbers could tell us what they mean, we would still need to make sure that they were correct. If a economic spreadsheet on statistics and an econometric spreadsheet merely came out and told a positivist economist what the data ‘showed’, he would still need to know whether or not the statement (or statements) were correct, by his own reasoning.
There is simply no way around theory and philosophy in economics and understanding; you cannot even look at numbers without using a form of philosophy. (Numbers are not physical things! They are ideas representing physical things in our universe.)”
Bonus: For more on the philosophy of numbers and mathematics, check out my paper on Aristotle and Mathematics.
Charlie Munger expresses the same idea regarding economics and the lack of use of outside models to support theories. “To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” Perspective and interpretation bring life to the numbers.