Subjectivism and Economic Analysis: Essays in memory of Ludwig ...

STEPHEN D.PARSONSproblems for Mises’s account as for Bratman’s. Consequently, adefence of Mises could not appeal to such action in order to rebutBratman’s argument that an adequate account of human action musttake account of individual plans. Given this, Lachmann’s own accountof human action requires investigating in more detail.Lachmann on human actionLachmann’s notion of a plan allows him to bring the relationshipbetween the method of understanding, action and meaning togetheras follows:All human action, if it is to be successful, requires a plan toguide it. To understand an action means to understand theplan which is being carried out here and now…all actionderives its meaning from the plan which guides it.(Lachmann 1971:12)The plans that actions derive their meaning from have severalcharacteristics. First, as Mises also recognised, individuals maydesire to pursue a number of incompatible ends. Lachmann’sargument here is that it is precisely through a plan that agents areable to establish some priority amongst these ends: In fact, “plan” isbut a generalization of purpose. In reality actors, individuals as wellas groups, pursue many purposes simultaneously and have toestablish an order of priority amongst them’ (Lachmann 1971:33).This is strongly reminiscent of Bratman’s argument, noted earlier,that plans act as ‘filters’. For Lachmann, in so far as plans allowpurposes to be ordered, they also enable a ‘comprehensive survey ofmeans’ (Lachmann 1971:30) to be undertaken, and thus allow acoherent arrangement of means and ends to be formulated. It is thetask of the social scientist to understand this coherence. Therefore,as noted previously, the historian:Must ask how far the variety of purposes pursued by theindividual whose action he studies…‘fitted together’. He hasto ascertain ‘The Plan’, the coherent design behind theobservable action in which the various purposes as well as themeans employed are bound together.(ibid.: 20)As situating means and ends within a coherent whole, plansintroduce a certain stability into human action:48