What to Austrians Is Most Objectionable Is the Neoclassical Style of Thought, Borrowed from Classical Mechanics

But what to Austrians is most objectionable is the neoclassical style of thought, borrowed from classical mechanics, which makes us treat the human mind as a mechanism and its utterances as determined by external circumstances. Action is here confused with mere reaction. There is no choice of ends. Given a ‘comprehensive preference field’ for each agent, what is there to choose? The outcome of all acts of choice is here predetermined. In response to changing market prices men perform meaningless acts of mental gymnastics by sliding up and down their indifference curves. All this is far removed from meaningful action in our ‘life-world’.

--Ludwig M. Lachmann, "Austrian Economics: A Hermeneutic Approach," in Economics and Hermeneutics, ed. Don Lavoie (London: Routledge, 2005), 133.