Henry Hazlitt on how Austrian economics differs from orthodox economics

Perhaps something should be said about the chief differences today between Austrian economics and what we may call "orthodox" or "mainstream" economics.  The difficulty here is that "mainstream" economics itself would be hard to define.  Economists are still divided into a number of recognizable "schools": neoclassicists, Keynesians, the Chicago School, the Lausanne School, and so on.  The limits of space forbid me to go into the distinguishing doctrines of each of these schools.  But one outstanding difference of the Austrians from all of these lies in their method of reasoning.  The Austrians emphasize methodological individualism.  That is, they not only begin by emphasizing human actions, preferences, and decisions, but individual actions, preferences, and initiatives.  Mainstream economists are concerned with "macroeconomics," with averages and aggregates; and those of the Lausanne School, trying to reduce economics to an "exact" science, and therefore seeking to quantify everything, are obsessed with complicated mathematical equations that try to stipulate the conditions of "general equilibrium."

~ Henry Hazlitt, "Understanding 'Austrian' Economics," The Freeman, February 1981