Discovery and the Deepself

M ainstream economists—Neoclassicals, in the narrow sense—have from time to time remarked on Israel Kirzner’s theory of entrepreneurship. They have maintained that Kirzner says things that do not fit into normal economic theory, that conflict with normal theory, that are too speculative to entertain, and that contradict other things he says. Their criticisms tell us why Kirzner is rebuffed by the narrow mainstream. The Austrian-Neoclassical dialogue as a whole tells us why there is no place for Kirznerian entrepreneurship in Neoclassical economics1: anything that cannot be compressed into and sealed entirely within a pure logic of choice, that is, within an optimization framework of ends and means, is deemed to be nonscience and hence nonsense. In this paper I attempt to reconcile the Neoclassical and Austrian views by borrowing ideas about the mind from Marvin Minsky. Minsky’s ideas lead to a mind theory richer than those of the Neoclassicals and Austrians. The richer theory accommodates valuable features of both the Neoclassical and the Austrian views.