在很多初学者眼里，奥地利学派经济学是什么是十分明确的，其教义就像是石板上的“十诫”，知道这些规定，就算懂奥地利学派经济学了。至于“十诫”的内容，可以是马赫鲁普（Machlup 1982, 39–40)的著名描述：
1. Methodological Individualism. In the explanation of economic phenomenas have to go back to the actions (or inaction) of individuals; group or collectives cannot act except through the actions of individual members.
2. Methodological subjectivism. In the explanation of economic phenomena we have to go back to judgments and choices made by individuals on the basis of whatever knowledge they have or believe to have and whatever expectations they entertain regarding external developments and especially the consequences of their own intended actions.
3. Marginalism. In all economic decisions, the value, cost, revenues, productivity, etc. are determined by the significance of the last unit, or lot. added to or subtracted from the total.
4. Tastes and preferences. Subjective valuations (utility) of goods and services determine the demand for them, so that their market prices are influenced by (actual and potential) consumers; diminishing marginal utility of each good or service consumed affects the allocation of consumers' incomes among various uses.
5. Opportunity costs (first called Wieser's law of costs). The cost with which producers or other economic actors calculate reflect the most important of the alternative opportunities that have to be foregone if productive services are employed for one purpose rather than for the (sacrificed) alternatives.
6. Time structure of consumption and production. Decisions to save reflect "time preference" regarding consumption in the immediate, distant, or indefinite future, and investments are made in view of larger outputs to be obtained from given inputs by means of processes taking more time.
1. 方法论的个人主义。在解释经济现象时，必须回到个人的行动（或不行动）；团体或集体不能行动，除非通过个人成员的行动。
2. 方法论主观主义。在解释经济现象时，我们必须回到个人所做出的判断和选择——基于他们拥有或认为拥有的任何知识，以及他们对外部发展特别是他们自己预期行动的后果所抱有的任何期望。
3. 边际主义。在所有经济决策中，价值、成本、收入、生产力等都是由添加到总数或从总数中减去的最后一个单位或批次的重要性决定的。
4. 口味和偏好。财货和服务的主观评价（效用）决定了对它们的需求，因此它们的市场价格受到（实际和潜在）消费者的影响；所消费的每种财货或服务的边际效用递减会影响消费者收入在各种用途之间的分配。
5. 机会成本（最初被称为维塞尔成本定律）。生产者或其他经济行动者计算的成本反映了如果生产性服务被用于一个目的而不是（牺牲的）替代品，则必须放弃的最重要的替代机会。
6. 消费和生产的时间结构。储蓄的决定反映了关于近期、遥远或不确定的未来消费的“时间偏好”，而投资是考虑到通过花费更多时间的过程从给定的投入中获得更大的产出而做出的。
当然，也可以是其他人的总结，比如Boettke (2008)这篇。“十诫”观的持有者会轻易地相信自己已经掌握了奥地利学派的精髓，给自己贴上“奥地利学派信仰者”的标签，并因此热衷于“传播奥地利学派经济学”。
然而，奥地利学派经济学作为一种研究范式，其定义性的特征到底是什么是十分不明确的。伊斯雷尔·柯兹纳在审视了马赫卢普的这六项总结之后，认为"With varying degrees of emphasis most modern microeconomics incorporates all these ideas ... the list of six Austrian ideas was not really complete."“多数现代微观经济学文献虽然着重点不同，但整合了所有这些思想……包含六大奥地利学派思想的清单并非真正完备。”（Kirzner , 65）
卡伦·沃恩在《奥地利学派在美国》中写道："…, what has been discovered is that there is no one clear and uncontroversial version of what modern Austrian economics is all about."“……，已经发现的是，对于现代奥地利经济学的全部内容，没有一个清晰且没有争议的版本”(Vaughn 1994, 9)
彼得·克莱因也承认："It is not always clear, however, exactly what distinguishes the Austrian School from other traditions, schools of thought, approaches, or movements within economics and its sister disciplines."“然而，奥地利学派与经济学及其姊妹学科中的其他传统、思想学派、方法或运动的确切区别并不总是一目了然”。(Klein 2008) 在克莱因的研究生教学大纲里，他把第一周的讨论主题定为了“试图定义奥地利学派”，列出的参考数目为：
Kirzner, Israel M. 1987. "Austrian School of Economics". In John Eatwell, Murray Milgate, and Peter Newman, eds., The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics (London: Macmillan).
Dolan, Edwin G. 1976. "Austrian Economics as Extraordinary Science" In Dolan, ed., The Foundations of Modern Austrian Economics (Kansas City: Sheed and Ward), pp. 3–18.
Klein, Peter G. 2008. "The Mundane Economics of the Austrian School." Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 11, nos. 3–4: 165–87.
Optional: Robbins, Lionel. 1932. An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science (London: Macmillan), chapters 1–4.
Optional: Boettke, Peter J. 2008. "Austrian School of Economics." In David R. Henderson, ed., The Concise Enclopedia of Economics (second edition, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund).
Optional: Backhouse, Roger E., 2000. "Austrian Economics and the Mainstream: View from the Boundary." Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 3, no. 2: 31–43.
这种不明确，和奥地利学派经济学的独特经历有关。它是现代经济学的三大起源之一，在长达150多年的历程中，经历过崛起、被主流吸收、衰落、主要成员迁移到美国、复兴等各种各样的事件，并因此形成了众多的版本。并且，奥地利学派这个招牌和和几代几代奥地利学派经济学家的说法，可能会让很多人误认为它是一个神秘的小宗派组织，有着正式的入会仪式和掌门继承机制。实际上并不是这样，它只是一个松散的学术传统。此外，我们完全可以把奥地利学派这个招牌理解为一度消亡，后来又在复兴运动中被重新启用。约瑟夫·萨勒诺（Salerno 2010）在《现代经济学中门格尔的因果-现实主义分析》（提取码: igba）中提出了一种对这个演变过程的理解，并认为
the term “Austrian economics” as the designation for the intellectual movement that coalesced in the early 1970s may now have outlived its usefulness. This term, which initially served an important strategic purpose in promoting the revival of the broad Mengerian tradition, may have come to obscure the meaning and importance of the praxeological research paradigm that Menger originated.
作为在20世纪70年代初联合起来的智识运动的名称，“奥地利学派经济学”一词现在可能已经超出了它的有效期。这个术语最初在促进广义的门格尔主义传统复兴方面具有重要的战略目的，但可能已经模糊了门格尔创始的行动学研究范式的意义和重要性。
Kesong Wang，当今中国最优秀的年轻奥地利学派经济学家之一，在评论《奥地利学派经济学作为一项进步研究计划的未来》的时候说道：
……，我就对构造作为某种research paradigm的Austrian economics这件事彻底失去兴趣了。我现在反正只使用Austrian economists这个词，用来表示a group of economists who agree with most parts of the writings of menger, bohm bawerk and mises on the issue of economics
在十多年的学习和探索之后，尽管有些不情愿，我是很理解这个说法的——它更准确。
当然，因为“奥地利学派经济学”这个招牌实在太有力量（主流新古典的少数正当挑战者之一），所以，就算大部分资深研究者都对其含混性心知肚明，愿意响应萨勒诺号召放弃这面招牌的也人寥寥无几。在可预见的将来，大家还得在这个屋檐下凑合着过日子。
参考文献
Backhouse, Roger E., 2000. "Austrian Economics and the Mainstream: View from the Boundary." Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 3, no. 2: 31–43.
Boettke, Peter J. 2008. "Austrian School of Economics," in David R. Henderson, ed., Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
Dolan, Edwin G. 1976. "Austrian Economics as Extraordinary Science," in Dolan, ed., The Foundations of Modern Austrian Economics. Kansas City: Sheed and Ward, pp. 3–18.
Kirzner, Israel M. 1987. "Austrian School of Economics," in John Eatwell, Murray Milgate, and Peter Newman, eds., The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics. London: Macmillan.
Kirzner, Israel M. 1992. The Meaning of Market Process: Essays in the Development of Mordern Austrian Economics. London: Routledge.
Klein, Peter G. 2008. “The Mundane Economics of the Austrian School.” Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 11 (3–4): 165–87.
Machlup, Fritz. 1982. "Austrian economic," in Encyclopedia of economics, ed. Greenwald, Douglas. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Robbins, Lionel. 1932. An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. London: Macmillan, chapters 1–4.
Salerno, J. T. 2010. Menger’s causal-realist analysis in modern economics. The Review of Austrian Economics, 23(1), 1–16.
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