Karl Theodor von Inama-Sternegg · 1873
Published in 1873, this address for the anniversary of the restoration of Innsbruck’s Leopold-Franzens University defends empirical economics as a means of advancing moral civilization. Inama-Sternegg distinguishes realism, which grounds inquiry in experience, from materialism, which subordinates human purposes to possessions. His governing aspiration is reconciliation: apparent conflicts between economic conduct and ethical development should become intelligible through more adequate knowledge.
Es ist der Wissenschaft beglückender Beruf, in ihrem unermüdlichen Streben nach Wahrheit immer schönere und vollkommene Harmonieen zu entdecken und aufzuzeigen, wo eine unvollkommene Erkenntniss nur Widerstrebendes, Disharmonisches wahrnehmen zu können glaubt.
English translation: It is science's happy calling, in its untiring striving after truth, ever to discover and exhibit more beautiful and more perfect harmonies where an imperfect knowledge believes it can perceive only what is conflicting and disharmonious.
This conception of science shapes both the method and the constructive argument. Observation, historical investigation, and statistics establish the basis of economic explanation. Deduction and abstraction remain legitimate when they clarify observed relations or distinguish forces operating together. Realism also entails recognizing self-interest, competition, and expanding needs as significant features of economic activity. Their investigation does not endorse unlimited acquisition.
Die Wissenschaft wird mit einem Worte als realistisch, wohl auch als materialistisch perhorrescirt, weil man ihr Untersuchungsobject, das wirthschaftliche Leben und Treiben, nicht als berechtigt gelten lassen will.
English translation: In a word, the science is abhorred as realistic, indeed even as materialistic, because people are unwilling to let its object of investigation, economic life and activity, count as legitimate.
The charge against economics thus often rests on a prior rejection of its subject matter. Inama-Sternegg answers by locating economic activity within human development: material resources can sustain intellectual life, while self-preservation and personal initiative are conditions of moral agency. Acknowledging these relations does not reduce people to their possessions.
His critique differentiates several idealizing positions. Confessional economics, associated historically with Adam Müller, makes a predetermined worldview the boundary of inquiry. Socialism, in his polemical account, presupposes equal productive capacity and an improbable collective self-discipline without establishing a practicable transition from existing society. Ascetic moralism likewise obscures legitimate personal interests by identifying virtue exclusively with disinterestedness.
Soll hier Klarheit geschafft werden, so ist vor Allem der Streitpunkt festzustellen.
English translation: If clarity is to be created here, then above all the point at issue must be established.
This demand for precision informs his engagement with the emerging ethical tendency represented by Schmoller’s Eisenach speech of 1872. Attention to moral motives, immaterial goods, and public spirit is, he argues, already part of German economics. The decisive disagreement concerns whether ethical aspirations supplement empirical inquiry or replace its evidentiary requirements. Morality and public spirit explain conduct only when their concrete manifestations can be identified.
The distinction also bears on freedom and coercion. A desirable collective purpose cannot by itself justify restricting individual action before freedom’s contribution has been examined. Yet freedom does not mean exemption from social regularities. Individuals may depart from customary conduct while recurrent behavior across populations remains open to scientific analysis. Quételet’s average person is therefore a historically variable abstraction, not a moral standard demanding conformity.
The constructive argument follows economic activity from self-preservation through valuation, competition, prices, and monetary calculation. Competition encourages economical resource use; greater wealth permits the satisfaction of higher needs. Education reshapes the ordering of wants and extends attention beyond immediate gratification. Public spirit develops through this process rather than entering economic life solely as an external prohibition.
Self-interest and common benefit are reconciled through cultivated judgment and institutions. Reciprocal recognition supports property rights, while families, associations, churches, and states make available goods that isolated individuals could not obtain, or could obtain only at greater cost. The proposed harmony is developmental, not a claim that existing conduct invariably serves everyone. Economic regularities remain compatible with historical transformation.
The conclusion gives this account practical force. Knowledge of prices and banknote backing can guide exchange and banking policy; demonstrably superior collective provision can justify corresponding limits on individual independence. The further question of legally coercive intervention belongs to political and administrative inquiry. The address joins historical-statistical explanation, economic freedom, and ethical improvement: ideals become scientifically productive when their realization proceeds through the capacities and institutions of actual social life.
This work was divided into 7 sections when it entered the library's research corpus—an apparatus for search and citation, not necessarily the author's own table of contents. Each title opens its summary.
Put a question to this work; the Librarian answers from its 7 sections and cites the passage.
Ask the Librarian