The Difference Indifference Makes
The Difference Indifference Makes

Author(s): Lucas M. Engelhardt
Subject(s): Economy, Economic policy, Political economy
Published by: Addleton Academic Publishers
Keywords: Walter Block; Austrian economics; indifference debate; praxeology; preference theory;
Summary/Abstract: What role can indifference play in the study of human action? This debate has been going on for some time, and has led to attacks on Austrian economic theorizing from Nozick (1977) and Caplan (1999). Within Austrian circles, some are more willing to embrace indifference to a strong degree (see O’Neill (2010)), while others argue that indifference cannot help us understand action, which, by nature involves choice. One prominent member of this latter camp is Walter Block, who has authored several articles – particularly rejoinders – on the topic of indifference, consistently taking the view that indifference in action is not possible. This essay will suggest that the value of these debates is not so much the ability to accept or reject indifference as an analytical tool (most prominently in indifference curve analysis), but rather the way these debates illuminate a number of other issues: free will, the connection between feeling and action, the place of heterogeneity, and the limits of praxeological reasoning.

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