Men are not wholly material beings. True we live in a material world. The physical world is a reality that all men live with. But their individual materialism, the way in which they interact with the materials around them, either natural or man made, is an expression of what or who each man is individually. Mises could clearly see this:
"Unlike other economists, Mises rejected the use of the theory of economic man, or Homo economicus, in economics. That model holds that man is driven solely by economic motives, the desire to make the greatest material or economic profit.
Mises thought that was too narrow. He preferred to study man as he really acted, with a multitude of motivations.
Still, that doesn't mean that men don't often act for economic motives. Nor does Mises' belief that the future is uncertain mean that it is completely unpredictable."
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