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More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.comFore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com142FROM NOVELIST TO PHILOSOPHER, 1944–1957to persuasion: “I had the impression that von Mises had worked outhis system, knew how he related his economics to the altruist morality,and that was that.” 24 Mises’s morality, however, did not ruin his entireapproach. Unlike Hayek, Mises held capitalism as an “absolute,” andthus she considered him worthy of study and respect.Nathan and Barbara were puzzled by Rand’s attitude toward Mises.They had seen the critical comments she left in the margins of hisbooks, Human Action and Bureaucracy. “Good God!” she wrote angrily.“Why, the damned fool!” Why then did she continue to court Mises andrecommend his books? Rare indeed was the person with whom Randdisagreed yet continued to see on a social basis. Her willingness to carveout an exception for Mises indicated the profound impact he had onher thought. As she told one of Mises’s students, “I don’t agree with himepistemologically but as far as my economics and political economy areconcerned, Ludwig von Mises is the most important thing that’s everhappened me.” It was easy for Rand to appreciate Mises’s intellectualorientation. He identified reason as “man’s particular and characteristicfeature” and based his work on methodological individualism, the ideathat individuals should be the primary units of analysis. These premisesunderlay his approach to economics, a field about which Rand knewlittle but considered critically important. 25Mises had first made his name with an attack on socialism. 26 In histome Socialism (first published in English in 1935) he argued that prices,which should be set by the free flow of market information, could neverbe accurately calculated under socialism; therefore fatal distortions werebuilt into the very structure of a controlled economy, and collapse wasinevitable. This analysis matched Rand’s understanding of life under theSoviets. She also found the idea insightful for what it suggested aboutmorality. In notes to herself she glossed Mises, writing, “Under altruism,no moral calculations are possible.” 27 Mises’s vision of an economy centeredprimarily on entrepreneurs rather than workers reinforced Rand’sindividualistic understanding of production and creativity.Mises also provided economic support for Rand’s contention thattrue capitalism had never been known, an idea she first advanced inthe “Manifesto of Individualism” years earlier. Along with his expositionof the calculation problem under socialism, Mises was known forhis argument against monopoly prices. According to Mises, in a truly