Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T08:52:23.168Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Reappraisal of Friedrich A. Hayek's Cultural Evolutionism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2009

Martin De Vlieghere
Martin De Vlieghere
Affiliation:
Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In spite of the important discoveries made by Adam Smith and later by the economists of the Austrian School, Friedrich Hayek remained intellectually challenged by the miracle of the price mechanism. As it turned out there was still some pioneering to do in describing the price mechanism. This became clear when Hayek identified the dispersal of information relevant to exchange transactions as the central issue of economic study. In the context of his distinction between competition as a state of things and as a process (Hayek, [1946]1980, pp. 92–106) the price mechanism manifests itself as a powerful integrator of information which is at first sight hopelessly dispersed in modern society. In 1945 he pointed out another intellectual challenge which the miracle of the price mechanism poses: How could such a marvelous functionality come into existence? “I am convinced that if it [the price mechanism] were the result of deliberate human design, and if the people guided by the price changes understood that their decisions have significance far beyond their immediate aim, this mechanism would have been acclaimed as one of the greatest triumphs of the human mind” (Hayek, [1945]1980, p. 87). It is precisely because the free determination of prices is obviously not an invention, and because actors on the market in general do not realize that their decisions are at once also signals for the information-processing system that the market is, that in general this market order is not highly estimated. The market order is nevertheless the best illustration of the dual principle that the most beautiful forms of complex functionality are not deliberately created and are not deliberately maintained (“the twin ideas of evolution and spontaneous order,” as Hayek put it; Hayek [1978]1985, p. 250; [1979] 1982, p. 158).

Type
Essays
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , October 1994 , pp. 285 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barry, Norman P. 1979. Hayek's Social and Economic Philosophy. London: MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bottomore, Tom. [1985]1988. Theories of Modern Capitalism. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James M. 1977. Freedom in Constitutional Contract: Perspectives of a Political Economist. London: Texas A&M University Press.Google Scholar
Burke, Edmund. [1790]1968. Reflections on the Revolution in France. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Crowley, Brian Lee. 1987. The Self, the Individual, and the Community. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
David, Paul. 1975. Technical Choice, Innovation and Economic Growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton. 1976. “The Methodology of Positive Economics.” In Essays in Positive Economics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gissurarson, H. H. 1987. Hayek's Conservative Liberalism. New York/London: Garland.Google Scholar
Gray, John. 1984. Hayek on Liberty. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gray, John. 1989. Liberalisms: Essays in Political Philosophy. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich A. [1936]1980. “Economics and Knowledge.” Reprinted in Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich A. [1945]1980. “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” Reprinted in Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich A. [1946]1980. “The Meaning of Competition.” Reprinted in Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich A. [1960]1976. The Constitution of Liberty. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich A. 1964. “The Theory of Complex Phenomena.” In The Critical Approach to Science and Philosophy, In Honor of Karl Popper, edited by Bunge, . London: The Free Press of Glencoe.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich A. [1967]1985. “The Confusion of Language in Political Thought.” In Mayek [1978]1985.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich A. [1973]1982. “Rules and Order.” Reprinted in Law, Legislation and Liberty. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich A. [1978]1985. New Studies in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and the History of Ideas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich A. [1979]1982. “The Political Order of a Free People.” Reprinted in Law, Legislation and Liberty. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich A. 1988. The Fatal Conceit, The Errors of Socialism. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Luhmann, Niklas. 1969. Legitimation durch Verfahren. Neuwied: Luchterhand.Google Scholar
Nelson, R. and Winter, S.. 1977. “Dynamic Competition and Technical Progress.” In Economic Progress, Private Values and Public Policy: Essays in Honor of William Fellner, edited by Balassa, B. and Nelson, R.. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Nelson, R., Winter, S., and Schuette, H.. 1976. “Technical Change in an Evolutionary Model.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 90: pp. 90–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oakeshott, Michael. [1962]1977. Rationalism in Politics. London: Methuen & Co.Google Scholar
Oakeshott, Michael. [1975]1991. On Human Conduct. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Ogburn, William F. [1957]1964. “Cultural Lag as Theory.” Reprinted in On Culture and Social Change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Popper, Karl. [1945]1984. The Open Society and Its Enemies. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Popper, Karl. [1963]1972. Conjectures and Refutations. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Steele, D. R. 1987. “Hayek's Theory of Cultural Group Selection.” Journal of Libertarian Studies 8:171–95.Google Scholar
Vanberg, Viktor. 1986. “Spontaneous Market Order and Social Rules.” Economics and Philosophy 2:75–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar