This is an excellent piece, excerpt:
The standing ovation was tremendous. "I was initially shocked by the disjunction between his intellectual capacity, which is completely undiminished and in many respects unequaled, and the physical degradation," says Richard Wolin, a professor of history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, who was in the audience. "But after five minutes, I lost sight of any physicality and focused on his words and their importance." He adds, "It was one of the most moving scenes I have ever witnessed."
Here is my previous post on Tony Judt.
I too will focus on his words and their importance:
“We live, he said, in a world shaped by a generation of Austrian thinkers—the business theorist Peter Drucker, the economists Friedrich A. von Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Joseph Schumpeter, and the philosopher Karl Popper”
This just after Boettke and Horwitz change their blog name from “The Austrian Economists” to “Coordination Problem.”
If only Judt would have said “We live in a world beset by coordination problems and varying abilities to perceive and describe them.”
Also, Eric H, Judt was talking about people who were literally Austrian by nationality. Not all the people he listed were economists. Boettke & co are Americans by nationality (plus one Frenchman, if I recall correctly) who promote a variety of economic thought associated with some Austrians. Schumpeter was Austrian by nationality and trained in the Austrian school, but defected to the Walrasians.
My reading of Judt’s piece in the New York Review Of Books indicates that social democracy has not yet recovered from the trauma of the 1970s. They still believe that when economics tells you that your political programme cannot achieve what you want it to achieve, economics must be at fault rather than your political programme.
TGGP,
I understand your points; mine was that prominent intellectuals such as Judt criticize putative “Austrian” ideas whereas Boettke & co. are working from a much broader base of knowledge inspired by the work of economists who happen to be Austrian. At least I take that to be a possible reason why they changed the name of their blog.
If Judt wants to challenge the ideas of Mises & Hayek in such a way, perhaps this means there is still work for blogs with “Austrian” in their title, or economists and thinkers who proudly consider themselves influenced by “Austrians,” in challenging Judt back. Boettke & Co. are right to want to push past the name, but others who might want to cling to it aren’t wrong for doing so.
Beautiful piece. Thanks, Tyler.
David
I thought that focusing on Judt’s words would do honor to him; considering his trials significant would only compound them. At least that is what I came away with after reading how he chose the subject matter for his talk.
Per Boettke’s subject matter, it is absolutely as broad as what Judt discusses. Time and plans. Can one get any broader than that?
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