German Idealism

Ludwig von Mises was, to a large extent, discussing German Idealism when he wrote:

"'Philosophers had long since been eager to ascertain the ends which God or Nature was trying to realize in the course of human history. They searched for the law of mankind's destiny and evolution. But even those thinkers whose inquiry was free from any theological tendency failed utterly in these endeavors because they were committed to a faulty method. They dealt with humanity as a whole or with other holistic concepts like nation, race, or church. They set up quite arbitrarily the ends to which the behavior of such wholes is bound to lead. But they could not satisfactorily answer the question regarding what factors compelled the various acting individuals to behave in such a way that the goal aimed at by the whole's inexorable evolution was attained. They had recourse to desperate shifts: miraculous interference of the Deity either by revelation or by the delegation of God-sent prophets and consecrated leaders, preestablished harmony, predestination, or the operation of a mystic and fabulous 'world soul' or 'national soul.' Others spoke of a 'cunning of nature' which implanted in man impulses driving him unwittingly along precisely the path Nature wanted him to take.'"

"Cunning of nature" is a Hegelian interpretation of Immanuel Kant's "plan of nature" doctrine "World soul" and "national soul" refer, respectively, to the concepts of weltgeist and volksgeist, both of which are associated with the philosophical system of G.W.F. Hegel  According to Mises, Hegel purported to be a kind of prophet of Geist.

Mises was highly critical of these holistic doctrines, because they posited that "society is an entity living its own life, independent of and separate from the lives of the various individuals, acting on its own behalf and aiming at its own ends which are different from the ends sought by the individuals." Mises argued that only individuals act, and therefore starting "the study of human action from the collective units" is unsound. Instead, Mises adhered to the principle of methodological individualism