ȃȃȅ Partʺʺ: Politics and Philosophyof intuitionism and of revealed commandments (MisesȀȈȃȈ/ȀȈȅȅ, p.ȇȂȂ).
Earlier we read, “Society and the state are ... the primary means for all peo-
ple to attain the ends that they aim at of their own accord.” Society is the
great means for attainment of all the individual’s ends (pp.Ȁȃȇ,ȀȅȄ). Ļe
division of labor and the exchange of people’s specialized outputs enhance
productivity. Ļe principle of comparative advantage, which Mises calls
the Ricardian Law of Association, goes far toward explaining how. In a
world without this enhancement of productivity, there would be no senti-
ments of benevolence and good will (pp.Ȁȃȃ,ȀȄȈ–Ȁȅȃ).
Ļe operation of the market coordinates individuals’ actions. No spe-
cial orders or prohibitions are necessary. Noncooperation penalizes itself.
Ļe market economy does not ask anybody to deviate from those lines of
conduct that best serve his own interests (pp.ȆȂȃ–ȆȂȅ).
Beyond the sphere of private property and the market, organized soci-
ety has built dams to protect private property and the market against vio-
lence, malice, and fraud (pp.ȆȂȃ–ȆȂȅ). Such misbehavior does occur be-
cause some persons are too narrow-minded or too weak in moral strength
and willpower to adjust themselves on their own to the conditions of social
life. Ļey yield to temptations; they seek fleeting advantage by actions
harmful to the smooth functioning of the social system. Society could
not exist if the majority were not ready to apply or threaten force to keep
these others from destroying the social order. Although anarchists over-
look this regrettable truth, the state is essential to crush the onslaughts
of peace-breakers (p.ȀȃȈ). “[T]he only purpose of the laws and the social
apparatus of coercion and compulsion is to safeguard the smooth function-
ing of social cooperation” (p.Ȇȁȁ).
In some passages Mises is quite explicit about his utilitarianism. Ļe
theory of social cooperation elaborated by British political economy from
Hume to Ricardo extended the Epicurean philosophy. “It substituted an
autonomous rational morality for the heteronomous and intuitionist ethics
of older days.” Ļe only yardstick to be applied to law, the moral code,
and social institutions is expediency with regard to human welfare. God
endowed “his creatures with reason and the urge toward the pursuit of
happiness” (p.ȀȃȆ).
Mises presents a utilitarian case for democracy and classical liberal-
ism. Liberalism is not itself a theory, he says, but an application of eco-
nomic and other theories to policy. It attaches a concrete—not purely for-
mal—meaning to happiness and removal of uneasiness. It supposes that
people prefer life, health, nourishment, and abundance to their opposites;