Methodological Individualism is a form of analysis that views all social phenomena as results of individual action. Only individuals can act, even when those individuals form collectives. This also holds true for exchanges. Markets and prices for goods represent the aggregation of individual preferences. Markets and institutions, then, must be evaluated in terms of individuals, rather than arbitrary groupings like class, race, or nationality.
Anthony Carilli - The Economic Way of Thinking
AUGUST 03, 2007 by SHELDON RICHMAN
The great economist Ludwig von Mises showed thateconomics can be deduced from the axiom that human beings act:individuals consciously select ends and apply scarce means to achieve them.By examining the logical implications of that undeniable fact, one can come tounderstand the concepts value, cost, time preference, supply,demand, money, price, profit, interest, andso on. In light of this, it is noteworthy that Mises was also an accomplishedhistorian. And more than that, he was an important historiographer; that is, hewas interested in the why and how of history. This theorist who is so identifiedwith the a priori method in economics also believed that a knowledge ofhistory and its methods was indispensable to understanding the world. More . . .
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