Entrepreneurship Cont'd (Plus Some Philosophy to Boot)

Bryan: thank you for your comment. I was interested in finding out that Kirzner is the leading authority on Ludwig von Mises:0)

Lest we get too technical in our love for economics, I wanted to let you know that I agree with your thoughts: progress results because of both minor (incremental) and major (radical) innovations. And I don't think that entrepreneurship is on its way out any time soon (despite the consolidation and M&A'ic tendencies of some corporations).

In fact, I think that entrepreneurship drives the world, although perhaps it's not always entirely innovative. For example, small-scale farmers are entrepreneurs, but they may not necessarily be innovators - check out IDE, run by Paul Polak, an inspiring visionary with whom I have had the good fortune to converse for many hours a few months ago.

I also recently plucked an interesting book from a friend's bookshelf recently (you know who you are; if you're reading this, I promise to return it in the next few months as I rotate it through my reading itinerary): Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge.

Again, perhaps a bit esoteric, but it's a work about the philosophy of scientific change (and, by extrapolation, perhaps also innovation - at least scientific). The book presents Kuhn's statement of position about the significance of revolutions in science. The book then presents criticisms to Kuhn's argument (i.e. the significance of revolutions in science), and Kuhn's final reply.



By the way, you may ask: who is Kuhn? That's Thomas S. Kuhn, actually. He wrote the Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which is taken to be one of the authoritative books on the philosophy of science.