… is from page 39 of the 2000 Liberty Fund edition of Geoffrey Brennan’s and James M. Buchanan’s 1985 volume, The Reason of Rules:
We also know, however, that people shift their view of the world when they come to understand alternative interpretations of reality based on alternative visions, without the perceived empirical-historical records having changed at all.
DBx: Were he still alive, Jim Buchanan would today, October 3rd, celebrate his 98th birthday. During his long and highly productive career Jim offered keen theoretical insights that differed sharply from those of mainstream economics, political science, and jurisprudence. These fresh insights – these alternative interpretations of reality – supply what I believe to be a far better filter for distinguishing relevant features of economic and political reality from irrelevant ones. Because of Jim’s pioneering and careful work – work that earned for him a Nobel Prize – our understanding of reality is far better than it would otherwise be.
