The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, credited to Ludwig von Mises, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science by Ludwig von Mises. Read in English by LibriVox Volunteers. This is the last book that von Mises wrote. It reflects a lifetime of learning and writing about economics as the leader of the Austrian School of economics. The book summarizes the spectacular success of economic freedom in building prosperity, and the intellectual error most civilizations fall into that hampers both their prosperity and their liberty. He demonstrates how socialism must fail because it cannot solve the problem of economic calculation, because short of totalitarian control, human behavior is always in flux and can't be studied the same way we study the physical "laws of nature". Yet there is an overall predictable regularity in human behavior as individuals go about choosing unpredictable ways to provide for their own pleasure, safety and security, which if given its head, tends towards creative problem solving and ever-increasing economic prosperity. (Summary by Michele Fry)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science
• Author credits: Ludwig von Mises
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 16
• Listed recording duration: 5:40:29

Catalogue topics

• economics
• economy
• epistemology
• capitalism
• monism
• positivism
• praxeology
• human action

Track guide

1. 00 - Preface — 8:10
2. 01 - Some Preliminary Observations Concerning Praxeology — 21:43
3. 02 - Ch. 1, 1: The Human Mind — 15:23
4. 03 - Ch. 1, 2: :The Human Mind — 16:40
5. 04 - Ch. 1, 3: :The Human Mind — 16:55
6. 05 - Ch. 2, 1: The Activistic Basis of Knowledge — 28:50
7. 06 - Ch. 2, 2: :The Activistic Basis of Knowledge — 20:31
8. 07 - Ch. 3: Necessity and Volition — 25:28
9. 08 - Ch. 4: Certainty and Uncertainty — 27:32
10. 09 - Ch. 5.1: On Some Popular Errors Concerning the Scope and Method of Economics — 20:43
11. 10 - Ch. 5, 2: On Some Popular Errors Concerning the Scope and Method of Economics — 20:35
12. 11 - Ch. 5, 3: On Some Popular Errors Concerning the Scope and Method of Economics — 20:34
13. 12 - Ch. 5, 4: On Some Popular Errors Concerning the Scope and Method of Economics — 22:32
14. 13 - Ch. 6: Further Implications of the Neglect of Economic Thinking — 25:28
15. 14 - Ch. 7: The Epistemological Roots of Monism — 24:57
16. 15 - Ch. 8: Positivism and the Crisis of Western Civilization — 22:25

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.