Catalaxia é uma teoria praxeológica que compreende como o mercado fixa os preços e as taxas de troca em um ambiente de ordem espontânea, que normalmente ocorrem sem a necessidade de objetivos comuns ou previamente planejados entre os agentes econômicos. Seu objetivo é a análise de todas as ações basadas em cálculos econômicos para rastrear a formação de preços até o ponto em que os agentes econômicos os determinam. Esta por sua vez explica os preços de mercado como são, no como deveriam ser idealmente. As leis catalácticas não são julgamentos de valor, mas pretendem ser exatas, objetivas e dotadas de validez universal.
O conceito foi primeiramente utilizado de maneira sistemática pelo economista austríaco Ludwig von Mises. Friedrich Hayek usou o termo catalaxia para descrever "A ordem que surge pelo ajuste recíproco de muitas economias individuais em um mercado"1 Hayek se sentia-se incomodado com o uso da palavra "economia" cuja o radical grego -que se traduz como "Administração Domestica"- implicava que os agentes econômicos em una economia de mercado teriam propósitos em comum. Hayek derivou a palavra "catalaxia" de verbo grego katallasso (καταλλάσσω) que significa não exclusivamente "intercambio" mas também " apoio na comunidade " e " passar de inimigo a amigo ".2
De acordo com Mises em seu Livro: Ação Humana (Human Action)3 Richard Whately que cunhara o termo "catallaxy". Sendo que este aparece no livro de Whately: Conferências Introdutórias sobre Economia Política , publicado em 1831. A citação original é:
"It is with a view to put you on your guard against prejudices thus created, (and you will meet probably with many instances of persons influenced by them,) that I have stated my objections to the name of Political-Economy. It is now, I conceive, too late to think of changing it. A. Smith, indeed, has designated his work a treatise on the "Wealth of Nations;" but this supplies a name only for the subject-matter, not for the science itself. The name I should have preferred as the most descriptive, and on the whole least objectionable, is that of CATALLACTICS, or the "Science of Exchanges.""4
Além disso, em uma nota de rodapé para essas frases , Whately continua:
"It is perhaps hardly necessary to observe, that I do not pretend to have classical authority for this use of the word Catallactics; nor do I deem it necessary to make any apology for using it without such authority. It would be thought, I conceive, an absurd pedantry to find fault with such words as "thermometer," "telescope," "pneumatics," "hydraulics," "geology," &c. on the ground that classical Greek writers have not employed them, or have taken them in a different sense. In the present instance, however, I am not sure that, if Aristotle had had occasion to express my meaning, he would not have used the very same word. In fact I may say he has used another part of the same verb in the sense of "exchanging;" (for the Verbals in are, to all practical purposes, to be regarded as parts of the verbs they are formed from) in the third book of the Nicom. Ethics he speaks of men who hold their lives so cheap, that they risked them in exchange for the most trifling gain []. The employment of this and kindred words in the sense of "reconcilement," is evidently secondary, reconciliation being commonly effected by a compensation; something accepted as an equivalent for loss or injury."5
References
edit- Hayek, F.A. Law, Legislation, and Liberty, Vol. 2. pp. 108-109.
- Hayek, F.A. Law, Legislation, and Liberty, Vol. 2. 1976. pp. 108-109. See also p. 185n4.
- Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action,1949
- Richard Whately. introductory lectures on political economy,1847
- Richard Whately. introductory lectures on political economy,1847