Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution is a treatise by Austrian school economist and philosopher Ludwig von Mises.

Mises elaborates on methodological dualism, develops the concept of thymology – a historical branch of the sciences of human action – and presents his critique of Marxist materialism.

He argues that these schools of thought – some politically motivated,[1] others blinded by dogmatism[2] – have committed epistemological and methodological blunders and are not conducive to a scientific understanding of human behavior.

He argues that while the natural sciences, in discovering scientific laws, must presuppose a strict regularity in the occurrence of causes and effects, i.e. determinism, such a presupposition cannot be held in the case of human action.

Mises also addresses the challenges of scientism in the context of social science, namely the application of positivism and behaviorism in the realm of human action.

Mises argues that thymology is what everybody resorts to when trying to understand and anticipate the historical and future actions of their fellow men, and is particularly useful to the historian.

To this point, Mises closes with some remarks on the uncertainty of the future and the neglect of ideological factors that can give rise to civilization but also stamp it out.