Re-reading Carl Menger’s Grundsätze – another book that “cries out to be surpassed”

* This is the revised version of a paper given as the concluding lecture at the International Conference “Carl Menger one century later: originality and modernity” in Nice, France, 24–26 November, 2021. I should like to thank Sandye Gloria and Ludovic Ragni for effectively organising the meeting against all pandemic odds, Marylène Fontana for her help, and Sandye, Richard Arena, Gilles Campagnolo, Günther Chaloupek, Alexander Linsbichler, Ferdinando Meacci and Richard Sturn for valuable discussions during the days of the meeting. I am also grateful to Tony Aspromourgos, Stephan Böhm, Günther Chaloupek, Christian Gehrke, Alexander Linsbichler, Anna Marcucci, Bertram Schefold and Hans-Walter Lorenz for numerous valuable observations and suggestions on an earlier draft of this essay and to an anonymous referee of EJHET for useful comments. It is only fair to say that some of the aforementioned see Menger’s contribution in a different light; see, for example, Gloria (in this volume) and Böhm (1992). Clearly, I alone am responsible for the following text and any remaining errors and misinterpretations contained in it.

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