HUMAN ACTION EXAM
Marcela Richardson
Michael Polanyi College
An exam on Human Action
May 22, 2014
PART II
What is human action?
Is the science of every human action, by choosing individuals determine their decisions including all ends and all mean are ranged in a single row and subjected to a decision which picks out one thing and sets aside the other.
What is history?
Is the collection and systematic arrangement of all the data of experience concerning human action.
What is methodological individualism?
The study of man alone, as all actions are performed by individuals using their reason and language to do something in society.
What is praxeology?
Deals with means that every acting man consider as such which will lead the individual to aim at his ends. It helps the individual to show the way to satisfy his wants.
Its is the science of human action.
What is catalaxy?
The science that studies exchange.
What is meant by the sovereignty of the consumer? Explain.
This means that the consumer is always choosing what stays in the market, and what is not valuable for their wants. Even entrepreneurs have to respond to the information provided by the consumer. They determine out from competition which business grows and which fails.
What are ends and means? Why are these concepts essential to the understanding of human action?
Because human action deal with ends sought by the actor (goal) and the means is whatever is used to achieve those ends. They only exist in the mind of the actor, and are shown through his actions in the market.
PART III
Are diamonds more valuable than water? Explain you answers by reference to value theory.
Acting man values means according to the valuation he places on the ends they can achieve.
Say for example I am in a desert, and haven’t drank water for more than two days, because I ran out of it. And I am walking with a very slow pace, and all of a sudden someone is offering me a gallon or purified cold water, or a very big precious diamond. In that moment I run down in my head my scale of values, according to my needs and as a priority I have 1. Satiating thirst, and as a very last need owning a diamond. In that moment I value most receiving the gallon of water, than the diamond, so I choose it, because of my subjective value toward an specific goal that I want to achieve which is having no longer thirst. What is very important is that my scale of value is determined to change through time and space, because my ends will be changing, therefore I will need to achieve it by using other means.
Why is time an essential and important concept in praxeology?
Time is related to change, causality, and notions of sooner and later. By acting, man is aware of the passing of time. Time is a scarce resource therefore it must be economized. Our decisions towards achieving and end are bounded by the limited knowledge we have in a given time. Time because is scarce and we must economize it, is related to scale of values. Say, for ex. I have an important test tomorrow, and before opening the book to study, one of my friends calls to go to see the latest movie of Leonardo Dicaprio, I run in my head the things that I most value and decide that my time will be better used if I choose to stay home studying because my opportunity cost of going implies very high consequences. Time is irreversible, it’s important to act consciously and in accordance with your set of values.
Explain the concept of calculation in praxeology. Why does Mises claim that “calculation” is “impossible” in socialism?
Economic calculation is an estimate of the expected outcome of future action, or the establishment of the outcome of past actions. It shows how individuals are free to choose and consume without impairing the future capacity to produce.
All that acting man needs n order to make his choice is to contrast them with his choice is to contrast them with the total amount of costs their acquisition or preservation requires but in a socialist economy people can’t measure costs and losses without authentic price (money) information given by individuals values.
Choose one essential concept or question from Chapter 15 of Human Action and explain it.
Competition
The purpose of social competition in a market economy entrust control of scarce resources to those who are most likely to satisfy the wants of the consumers. If someone has the knowledge of how to create a more efficient and less costly method to make engines work, they can enter the market, and test out their ideas if the consumers give the same value as he thinks they will, and if it supplies the wants of the consumer, then they will remain in the market, and by the consumers choice. Others that were competing with another substitute will be discarded of the market, because of their inefficiency and high cost, if it’s the other way around, the business will go out of business because it doesn’t bring solution to the consumer’s ends.
A graph of elastic demand explains a relation between the price of a product and how much quantity of a product will the consumer be willing to buy at a certain cost. If its lower the price, quantity demanded will be higher. Higher the price, quantity demanded will be lower.
Michael Polanyi College
An exam on Human Action
May 22, 2014
PART II
What is human action?
Is the science of every human action, by choosing individuals determine their decisions including all ends and all mean are ranged in a single row and subjected to a decision which picks out one thing and sets aside the other.
What is history?
Is the collection and systematic arrangement of all the data of experience concerning human action.
What is methodological individualism?
The study of man alone, as all actions are performed by individuals using their reason and language to do something in society.
What is praxeology?
Deals with means that every acting man consider as such which will lead the individual to aim at his ends. It helps the individual to show the way to satisfy his wants.
Its is the science of human action.
What is catalaxy?
The science that studies exchange.
What is meant by the sovereignty of the consumer? Explain.
This means that the consumer is always choosing what stays in the market, and what is not valuable for their wants. Even entrepreneurs have to respond to the information provided by the consumer. They determine out from competition which business grows and which fails.
What are ends and means? Why are these concepts essential to the understanding of human action?
Because human action deal with ends sought by the actor (goal) and the means is whatever is used to achieve those ends. They only exist in the mind of the actor, and are shown through his actions in the market.
PART III
Are diamonds more valuable than water? Explain you answers by reference to value theory.
Acting man values means according to the valuation he places on the ends they can achieve.
Say for example I am in a desert, and haven’t drank water for more than two days, because I ran out of it. And I am walking with a very slow pace, and all of a sudden someone is offering me a gallon or purified cold water, or a very big precious diamond. In that moment I run down in my head my scale of values, according to my needs and as a priority I have 1. Satiating thirst, and as a very last need owning a diamond. In that moment I value most receiving the gallon of water, than the diamond, so I choose it, because of my subjective value toward an specific goal that I want to achieve which is having no longer thirst. What is very important is that my scale of value is determined to change through time and space, because my ends will be changing, therefore I will need to achieve it by using other means.
Why is time an essential and important concept in praxeology?
Time is related to change, causality, and notions of sooner and later. By acting, man is aware of the passing of time. Time is a scarce resource therefore it must be economized. Our decisions towards achieving and end are bounded by the limited knowledge we have in a given time. Time because is scarce and we must economize it, is related to scale of values. Say, for ex. I have an important test tomorrow, and before opening the book to study, one of my friends calls to go to see the latest movie of Leonardo Dicaprio, I run in my head the things that I most value and decide that my time will be better used if I choose to stay home studying because my opportunity cost of going implies very high consequences. Time is irreversible, it’s important to act consciously and in accordance with your set of values.
Explain the concept of calculation in praxeology. Why does Mises claim that “calculation” is “impossible” in socialism?
Economic calculation is an estimate of the expected outcome of future action, or the establishment of the outcome of past actions. It shows how individuals are free to choose and consume without impairing the future capacity to produce.
All that acting man needs n order to make his choice is to contrast them with his choice is to contrast them with the total amount of costs their acquisition or preservation requires but in a socialist economy people can’t measure costs and losses without authentic price (money) information given by individuals values.
Choose one essential concept or question from Chapter 15 of Human Action and explain it.
Competition
The purpose of social competition in a market economy entrust control of scarce resources to those who are most likely to satisfy the wants of the consumers. If someone has the knowledge of how to create a more efficient and less costly method to make engines work, they can enter the market, and test out their ideas if the consumers give the same value as he thinks they will, and if it supplies the wants of the consumer, then they will remain in the market, and by the consumers choice. Others that were competing with another substitute will be discarded of the market, because of their inefficiency and high cost, if it’s the other way around, the business will go out of business because it doesn’t bring solution to the consumer’s ends.
A graph of elastic demand explains a relation between the price of a product and how much quantity of a product will the consumer be willing to buy at a certain cost. If its lower the price, quantity demanded will be higher. Higher the price, quantity demanded will be lower.