Throughout his life, Ludwig von Mises sought to engage in public debate and to address widespread anti-liberal and anti-capitalist sentiments among intellectuals. Taking Mises’ explanation of the anti-capitalism of intellectuals as a point of reference, this article looks at what Robert Nozick offers as an alternative explanation for why intellectuals oppose capitalism. The article then changes the perspective and asks whether Mises and Nozick can inspire methodological lessons to be learnt for the (ordonomic) rational-choice approach. The article claims that both Mises and Nozick call attention to the importance of interdependencies between social structure and semantics.