Synopses & Reviews
Friedrich A. Hayek is regarded as one of the preeminent economic theorists of the twentieth century, as much for his work outside of economics as for his work within it. During a career spanning several decades, he made contributions in fields as diverse as psychology, political philosophy, the history of ideas, and the methodology of the social sciences. Bruce Caldwell—editor of
The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek—understands Hayek's thought like few others, and with this book he offers us the first full intellectual biography of this pivotal social theorist.
Caldwell begins by providing the necessary background for understanding Hayek's thought, tracing the emergence, in fin-de-siècle Vienna, of the Austrian school of economics—a distinctive analysis forged in the midst of contending schools of thought. In the second part of the book, Caldwell follows the path by which Hayek, beginning from the standard Austrian assumptions, gradually developed his unique perspective on not only economics but a broad range of social phenomena. In the third part, Caldwell offers both an assessment of Hayek's arguments and, in an epilogue, an insightful estimation of how Hayek's insights can help us to clarify and reexamine changes in the field of economics during the twentieth century.
As Hayek's ideas matured, he became increasingly critical of developments within mainstream economics: his works grew increasingly contrarian and evolved in striking—and sometimes seemingly contradictory—ways. Caldwell is ideally suited to explain the complex evolution of Hayek's thought, and his analysis here is nothing short of brilliant, impressively situating Hayek in a broader intellectual context, unpacking the often difficult turns in his thinking, and showing how his economic ideas came to inform his ideas on the other social sciences.
Hayek's Challenge will be received as one of the most important works published on this thinker in recent decades.
Review
andldquo;Hayek scholars will be grateful for this collection that shows how his seemingly disparate work in economics, methodology, psychology, and legal theory is actually part of an integrated whole, unified by the idea of spontaneous order. Brilliantly selected, well-organized, and concisely explained, this is a very strong addition to the Collected Works series.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Friedrich A. Hayek is regarded as one of the preeminent economic theorists of the twentieth century, as much for his work outside of economics as for his work within it. During a career spanning several decades, he made contributions in fields as diverse as psychology, political philosophy, the history of ideas, and the methodology of the social sciences. Bruce Caldwell—editor of
The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek—understands Hayek's thought like few others, and with this book he offers us the first full intellectual biography of this pivotal social theorist.
Caldwell begins by providing the necessary background for understanding Hayek's thought, tracing the emergence, in fin-de-siècle Vienna, of the Austrian school of economics—a distinctive analysis forged in the midst of contending schools of thought. In the second part of the book, Caldwell follows the path by which Hayek, beginning from the standard Austrian assumptions, gradually developed his unique perspective on not only economics but a broad range of social phenomena. In the third part, Caldwell offers both an assessment of Hayek's arguments and, in an epilogue, an insightful estimation of how Hayek's insights can help us to clarify and reexamine changes in the field of economics during the twentieth century.
As Hayek's ideas matured, he became increasingly critical of developments within mainstream economics: his works grew increasingly contrarian and evolved in striking—and sometimes seemingly contradictory—ways. Caldwell is ideally suited to explain the complex evolution of Hayek's thought, and his analysis here is nothing short of brilliant, impressively situating Hayek in a broader intellectual context, unpacking the often difficult turns in his thinking, and showing how his economic ideas came to inform his ideas on the other social sciences.
Hayek's Challenge will be received as one of the most important works published on this thinker in recent decades.
Synopsis
In addition to his groundbreaking contributions to pure economic theory, F. A. Hayek also closely examined the ways in which the knowledge of many individual market participants could culminate in an overall order of economic activity. His attempts to come to terms with the andldquo;knowledge problemandrdquo; thread through his career and comprise the writings collected in the fifteenth volume of the University of Chicago Pressandrsquo;s Collected Works of F. A. Hayek series.
The Market and Other Orders brings together more than twenty works spanning almost forty years that consider this question. Consisting of speeches, essays, and lectures, including Hayekandrsquo;s 1974 Nobel lecture, andldquo;The Pretense of Knowledge,andrdquo; the works in this volume draw on a broad range of perspectives, including the philosophy of science, the physiology of the brain, legal theory, and political philosophy. Taking readers from Hayekandrsquo;s early development of the idea of spontaneous order in economics through his integration of this insight into political theory and other disciplines, the book culminates with Hayekandrsquo;s integration of his work on these topics into an overarching social theory that accounts for spontaneous order in the variety of complex systems that Hayek studied throughout his career.
Edited by renowned Hayek scholar Bruce Caldwell, who also contributes a masterly introduction that provides biographical and historical context, The Market and Other Orders forms the definitive compilation of Hayekandrsquo;s work on spontaneous order.
About the Author
F. A. Hayek (1899andndash;1992), recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 and co-winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974, was a pioneer in monetary theory and a leading proponent of classical liberalism in the twentieth century. He taught at the University of London, the University of Chicago, and the University of Freiburg.
Bruce Caldwell is research professor of economics and the director of the Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University.and#160;Since 2002, he has also served as the general editor of the Collected Works of F. A. Hayekseries.
Table of Contents
Editorial Forewordand#160;Introductionand#160;and#160;
THE MARKET AND OTHER ORDERSand#160;Prologue: Kinds of Rationalism (1965)and#160;
Part I. The Early Ideasand#160;Oneand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Economics and Knowledge (1937)Twoand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Facts of the Social Sciences (1943)Threeand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Use of Knowledge in Society (1945)Fourand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Meaning of Competition (1948)
and#160;Part II. From Chicago to Freiburg: Further Developmentand#160;Fiveand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
The Political Ideal of the Rule of Law (1955)Lecture I. Freedom and the Rule of Law: A Historical SurveyLecture II. Liberalism and Administration: The
RechtsstaatLecture III. The Safeguards of Individual LibertyLecture IV. The Decline of the Rule of LawSixand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Degrees of Explanation (1955)Sevenand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Economy, Science and Politics (1963)Eightand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Rules, Perception and Intelligibility (1962)
and#160;Part III. A General Theory of Orders, with Applicationsand#160;Nineand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Theory of Complex Phenomena (1964)Tenand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Notes on the Evolution of Systems of Rules of Conduct (1967)Elevenand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Results of Human Action but Not of Human Design (1967)Twelveand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Competition as a Discovery Procedure (1968)Thirteenand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Primacy of the Abstract (1969)and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Appendix: The Primacy of Abstractandmdash;DiscussionFourteenand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Errors of Constructivism (1970)Fifteenand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Nature vs. Nurture Once Again (1971)Sixteenand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Pretence of Knowledge (1975)and#160;Appendix Aand#160;and#160; New Look at Economic Theoryandmdash;Four Lectures Given at the University of Virginia, 1961Lecture I. The Object of Economic TheoryLecture II. The Economic CalculusLecture III. Economics and TechnologyLecture IV. The Communication Function of the Marketand#160;Appendix Band#160;and#160; Economists and Philosophersandmdash;Walgreen Lecture, University of Chicago, 1963and#160;and#160;Index