Six, Quantitative Approach to Economic Problems

Praxeological knowledge makes it possible to predict with apidictic certainty the outcome of various modes of action. But such prediction can never imply anything regarding quantitative matters. Every new datum brings about a re shuffling of the whole price structure. Understanding, by trying to grasp what is going in the minds of the men concerned, can approach the problem of forecasting future conditions. We may call its method unsatisfactory, and the positivists may arrogantly scorn it. But such arbitrary judgments must not obscure the fact that understanding is the only appropriate method of dealing with the uncertainty of future conditions.