Mises and Montaigne: A Comment
为米塞斯辩护，指出他将“一人之所得必为他人之所失”归因于蒙田是正确的，并论证蒙田不仅指非自愿交易，也包括自愿交易，而米塞斯认为企业家利润本质上是心理性的。
Did Ludwig von Mises err in attributing the idea that “no man profits but by the loss of another” to Michel de Montaigne, as Casto Martín Montero Kuscevic and Marco Antonio del Río Rivera claim? In this brief comment we vindicate Mises's assessment and criticisms of Montaigne by way of three points. First, Mises was indeed correct in christening the belief that the economy can be presented as a zero-sum game as the “Montaigne dogma.” Second, we demonstrate that Montaigne refers not only to involuntary exchanges but also to voluntary ones. Finally, we show that Mises considers cases beyond their strict monetary results and refers to entrepreneurial profits as being primarily psychic in nature. As a result, Mises is able to offer an explanation for why forced transactions create no net benefit, but voluntary ones cannot be interpreted in the same way.