Political Economy: Human Conduct in Social Life

Abstract

The original title of this unpublished essay was Nationalökonomie: Verhalten des Menschen im sozialen Leben. The English translation is by Helmut Wagner. The essay was occasioned by Friedrich von Hayek’s visit to Vienna in 1936, where he gave a lecture to the Viennese Gesellschaft für Wirtswissenschaft. The topic was “Wissen and Wirtschaft” [“Knowledge and Economics’]. In his discussion, Schutz addressed not so much the points von Hayek made, but instead developed ideas occasioned by some of von Hayek’s remarks, sending typed copies of them to Ludwig von Mises, Felix Kaufmann and Fritz Machlup. Von Hayek requested a copy which he intended to have translated and published in the journal Economica. Agreeing to write an appropriate essay for the journal, Schutz wrote a hand-written introduction of seven pages and a longer draft of his discussion which his wife typed in several copies, each of which came to about twenty-five pages. Schutz made corrections by hand to bring the manuscript into final form. There are also changes made by Machlup, some of which Wagner has incorporated into his translation.¹