Hans Mayer, Der Erkenntniswert der funktionellen Preistheorien (1932)

This is a single-author theoretical treatise: a methodological critique of mathematical, functional, and equilibrium price theories, moving through Cournot, Jevons, Walras, Pareto, and Cassel before ending in a programmatic defense of causal-genetic analysis. Mayer’s central thesis is not that mathematics is useless, but that equilibrium systems mistake a description of already established relations for an explanation of price formation. The decisive distinction is between genetic-causal theories, which try to explain how prices arise, and functional theories, which state correspondences among magnitudes once equilibrium is assumed.

Die Gleichgewichtstheorie setzt sich als Erkenntnisaufgabe die exakte Beschreibung der quantitativen Beziehungen, die zwischen den Preisen, den angebotenen und nachgefragten Mengen aller Güter auf einem einheitlichen Markte bestehen, wenn der Ruhezustand erreicht ist, d. i. keine weiteren Verschiebungen der Güter durch Tauschakte mehr erfolgen.

English translation: Equilibrium theory sets itself the cognitive task of exactly describing the quantitative relationships that obtain among the prices and the supplied and demanded quantities of all goods in a unified market once the state of rest has been reached—that is, once no further shifts of goods through acts of exchange take place.

The structure of the work follows from this distinction. Cournot is treated as the founder of exact demand-function analysis, powerful for special problems such as monopoly price but too narrow for the general problem of price formation. Jevons and Walras then appear as transitional figures: they begin from utility, need, and subjective valuation, yet convert the problem into simultaneous equilibrium equations. Mayer’s objection is that this conversion changes the object of inquiry itself.

Das Problem hat sich damit geändert und nicht nur die Betrachtungsweise.

English translation: The problem itself has thereby changed, and not merely the point of view.

The most compressed statement of the whole argument comes in Mayer’s criticism of Walras. A system of simultaneous equations can describe logical compatibility among prices, quantities, and marginal utilities; it cannot by itself reconstruct the temporal and causal process through which determinate prices emerge.

Aber es ist eben ein Problem, das simultane Entsprechungsverhältnis von Elementen darzustellen und ein anderes Problem, die genetische Ableitung des Endergebnisses eines Prozesses zu geben.

English translation: But it is one problem to depict the simultaneous correspondence-relations among elements, and quite another to give the genetic derivation of the final outcome of a process.

Pareto receives Mayer’s most detailed critique of the attempt to eliminate “psychology” by replacing measurable utility with indifference systems. Mayer argues that Pareto’s indifference curves rest on a fictional experiment: the theorist pretends to elicit from individuals complete rankings of innumerable commodity combinations. This, Mayer says, does not avoid subjective experience but disguises it, while also assuming unrealistic substitutability among goods.

Es ist kein wirkliches Experiment, sondern die Fiktion eines Experimentes, vorgenommen zu dem Zwecke, um dem Theoretiker die Ergebnisse zu liefern, die er a priori postuliert.

English translation: It is not a real experiment, but the fiction of an experiment, undertaken for the purpose of supplying the theorist with the results he postulates a priori.

Cassel is presented as the limiting case of simplification: a price theory without value theory, based on scarcity, given prices, and demand as a function of prices. Mayer’s criticism is that Cassel smuggles in a normative standpoint, as though “the exchange economy” itself set prices in order to ration scarce goods rationally. The actual problem of a decentralized market—how prices arise without such a directing will—is thereby bypassed.

Das spezifische Problem der Theorie der Preisbildung ist also durch den normativen Ausgangspunkt in CASSELS System von Anfang an eliminiert.

English translation: The specific problem of the theory of price formation is thus eliminated from the outset in Cassel's system by its normative point of departure.

The relevance of Mayer’s work lies in this methodological diagnosis. It is an Austrian-inflected critique of general equilibrium before the later debates over statics, dynamics, and mathematical economics became standard. Mayer does not reject formalization; he rejects formal systems made of definitions, identities, and assumed simultaneity when they claim to explain real processes. His positive demand is for theory grounded in empirical laws of subjective need, valuation, social organization, and temporal adjustment. The closing appeal turns away from self-contained deduction toward research into becoming rather than mere being.

Müde des Spiels des fortwährenden Knüpfens an der Kette der Syllogismen wendet sich die Theorie der Gegenwart von der bloßen „Ableitung“ wieder der Forschung zu.

English translation: Weary of the game of continually forging further links in the chain of syllogisms, present-day theory is turning away from mere "derivation" and back to genuine inquiry.