Hayek, Friedrich A.

The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek)

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A Timeless Classic
The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism
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Insightful but Imperfect
An underrated 20th century thinker

The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek)
F. A. Hayek
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226320669

Book Description

Hayek gives the main arguments for the free-market case and presents his manifesto on the "errors of socialism." Hayek argues that socialism has, from its origins, been mistaken on factual, and even on logical, grounds and that its repeated failures in the many different practical applications of socialist ideas that this century has witnessed were the direct outcome of these errors. He labels as the "fatal conceit" the idea that "man is able to shape the world around him according to his wishes."

"The achievement of The Fatal Conceit is that it freshly shows why socialism must be refuted rather than merely dismissed--then refutes it again."--David R. Henderson, Fortune.

"Fascinating. . . . The energy and precision with which Mr. Hayek sweeps away his opposition is impressive."--Edward H. Crane, Wall Street Journal

F. A. Hayek is considered a pioneer in monetary theory, the preeminent proponent of the libertarian philosophy, and the ideological mentor of the Reagan and Thatcher "revolutions."

Customer Reviews:

A Timeless Classic.......2007-05-25

Frederich August Hayek

"If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion."

The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism.......2007-03-26

To those who have some basic understanding of economics and history Hayek provides one of the greatest apologetic summaries of why market economics work and why socialism does not. To those who profess to love the common man and who suffer with the plight of Africa and other parts of the underdeveloped world there is a lesson to those who will hear it. Proceed with socialism and waste time, money, and lives. Proceed with market economics and with all its cruelties it is kinder by far than socialism. Just look at China, and India verses Russia and Africa.

excellent service.......2007-02-20

The book came very quickly and was packaged well. Service excellent. Book was in excellent condition, even better than advertised. I appreciate the professional service.

Insightful but Imperfect.......2005-10-08

A good book by a very intelligent author. Hayek states the "fatal conceipt" is an overestimation of the mind's power. Socialism holds that a central planning authority can create an economy that is more just and distributes resources to their most productive uses better than the free market. This is "conceipt" because in reality no mind or group of minds is powerful enough to accomplish such a task. Hayek states that markets arise from "spontaneous order" and this is the most efficient mechanism for allocating resources. This rejection of socialism is similar to von Mises' rejection based on the lack of a price structure.

Hayek also puts forth the idea of evolutionary ethics, which is somewhat more troubling. The argument is that moral conventions such as private property, rights, etc, are the result of an evolutionary process with only subtle differences from darwinism. The moral practices that will survive in the long-term are those which allow for the greatest productivity, hence private property. Any rational constructivist attempt to establish an ethical code a priori is arrogance, as Hayek just does not believe this is the way morals arise. While this thankfully eliminates socialism, it also rules out John Locke's natural rights theory, which is one cornerstone of Libertarianism.

Because evolution requires a trial of various alternatives in order to be effective, Hayek also approves of social experimentation, such as trying new governments, social systems, etc. He states that "socialism has failed so many times that it can hardly be considered experimentation," thereby implying that socialism could have been tried when it was an original idea. Hayek never clearly defines or gives guidelines for what is an acceptable social experiment and what is not. While I doubt he would have approved of something like the Bolshevik revolution as a legitimate experiment, he doesn't rule it out either. The absence of guidelines for experiments is a major weakness of this book.

All in all, The Fatal Conceipt has good insights about the emergence of cultural morality. However, one of the problems is Hayek's failure to give proper credence to a priori arguments. I'd recommend reading it, but very carefully.

An underrated 20th century thinker.......2005-07-06

Hayek is an amazing thinker, a dense writer and a rewarding read. Though the book is less than 150 pages, Hayek manages to make a fully thought out argument, reasoning that the complexity of the society that we live in is not fully comprehended, predictable or explainable. Hayek believes that our culture has evolved in such a way that the root causes of our interactions benefit us, but the underlying reasons have been lost throughout the generations.

Economics and sociology are virtually the same science as both are built around the interactions of people within a larger system (both stem from a system of thought called praxiology). The difference is that economics is focused on the interchange between people that effects monetary systems. Economics can not be separated from sociology, nor the other way around.

Because of this lack of understanding of our society as a whole, he argues that it is impossible for bureaucrats in their marbelized hallways to plan an economy for an entire nation. After all, he argues, who are these great minds that possibly plan out in detail the needs for a changing society?

Hayek uses the term "Rational Constructivism" to define the attempt to use reason to construct a society. He argues that this is impossible in what he calls "the extended order" - a large market economy where people interact in a non-direct way. For example, we interact with the makers of electronics, but we never meet them or speak to them directly. Our only interaction is by purchasing the products that they produce. The interaction within an extended order is unpredictable or unknowable to us, thereby discrediting the notion a person or group of people who can plan an economy exist.

The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays

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Austrian macro-economics without any criticisms
The Austrian School in a Nutshell
Real Economics
Useful primer on Austrian Theory

The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays
Ludwig von Mises , Murray N. Rothbard , Gottfried Haberler , and Friedrich A. Hayek
Manufacturer: Ludwig Von Mises Inst
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ASIN: 0945466218

Book Description

Booms and busts are not endemic to the free market, argues the Austrian theory of the business cycle, but come about through manipulation of money and credit by central banks. In this monograph, Austrian giants explain and defend the theory against alternatives. Includes essays by Mises, Rothbard, Haberler, and Hayek. In his later years, Professor Haberler distributed many of these monographs to friends and associates. New edition with an introduction by Roger Garrison and an index.

Customer Reviews:

Austrian macro-economics without any criticisms.......2001-10-29

A lovely succinct account from four towers in a tradition of economics that is widely represented in the financial markets. Roger Garrison - himself a leading light in modern times - leads off with a brief overview. The nice thing is that Garrison manages to get it all across without resorting to waffle - another Austrian tradition.

In fact, in my view, Garrison is the star of this review since his ability to keep it simple is a tremendous asset. Anyone familiar with the dark mutterings of academics in Austrian academic journals will know exactly what I'm talking about.

Aside from Garrison, the pieces by Rothbard and Harberler are the best since they tackle the central issue of Trade Cycle theory - that any system run by central bankers is inherently unstable since their tinkering with interest rates leads directly to the business cycle. Much better to have a competitive banking system without a central bank and a curency tied to gold. That way credit expansions will never be explosive. Of course, what they don't tell you is that their proposals are inherently deflationary and force deficit countries to do all adjustment when they experience balance of payments problems.

Rothbard's piece sets out the mechanics of the Trade Cycle especially well and everyone should be able to understand what he's getting at without too much difficulty. It's no more difficult than the average economics course on an MBA programme. That's hardly difficult, is it?

Readers wishing to understand the micro-economics of the Austrian school should also check out some of the recent publications of one Israel Kirzner.

The Austrian School in a Nutshell.......2001-09-25

At last! An anthology from one of the most important schools of libertarian economics in a portable form! This book can be easily incorporated into a course on economics or banking.
And yet, "The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle" is a narrowly useful tool. It's like a tire gauge, that means everything when there's a problem with the tire, but tells nothing about gas or oil levels. I see few times when the average production supervisor, Sunday-school teacher or working mom would have occasion to read it.
In the introduction, Roger Garrison spells out the differences between the Austrian School and other movements in free-market economics. The Austrian School emphasizes the role of time in decision making. To think of an example, Joe wants to buy a car now that the interest rates are low. But if the interest rates are high, he'll put his money in the bank and wait a year until he replaces the family car.
Ludwig von Mises' essay, which lends its name to the book, reveals the international character of the Austrian School. The essay was translated out of the French, points back to the British Currency School, and alludes to the contribution of Knut Wicksell from Sweden. This theory was, nevertheless, developed by Austrians, beginning with Carl Menger. References to the University of Chicago and to the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, bring the movement to a home in America.
The key point is that a boom produced and prolonged by easy bank money with government support will sooner or later contract into a bust when the easy money turns hard. Just ask any farmer who bought machinery on credit years ago, when inflation was rampant.
Gottfried Haberler demonstrates that economics is, in fact, difficult to reduce to mathematics. He points to how money is needed at different times as a product moves out of the ground through its production phases to the end user.
In contrast, Murray Rothbard tells us with sparkling satire why we no longer have "panics" and "depressions." He also gives insight on how a change in time preference changes interest rates; interest rates fall if enough buyers become savers.
Friedrich Hayek points to an insidious effect of inflation. Not is it more fun to be a debtor on a fixed-rate loan when inflation is high, but taxable profits are much higher than the profits are worth in reality. Easy money gives rise to inflation.
Roger Garrison finally draws a couple of price/quantity graphs in his summary, savings/investment graphs to be specific. Money created by the government has the same short-term effect as a genuine increase in savings, but genuine savings are lower because savers are coolly greeted by lower interest rates for their hard-earned money. The bust after the boom is a real let-down.
With my MBA from Campbell, this material is clearer and livelier to me than it would be to the man on the street.

Real Economics.......2001-07-01

I ordered this book as a part of a course I am designing for myself on economics. It is a good introduction to the Austrian school but provides information that even those familiar with the subject will find useful. Rothbard addresses many fallacies regarding the free market and provides a clear explanation of the Austrian theory of the trade cycle and other theories, relating them to history and comparing them with classical and Keynesian theories. This is a helpful comparison, as it reveals some inherent flaws in the latter and outlines the eventual results of the acceptance of those theories. This book does not give an in-depth analysis of its subject, but provides a cohesive picture and points for further examination. It is also a helpful text for understanding capitalist theory and the history of the Austrian school.

Useful primer on Austrian Theory.......2001-05-15

With the economy on the brink of a major collapse, there would seem to be no better time than the present to become reacquainted with the Austrian theory of the trade cycle, since this theory is nearly the only one which can come close to explaining the present crisis. Whereas most academic economists, under the influence of Keynes, believe that the economy, if manipulated in the right ways by the central banking authorities, can be kept in a state of expansion indefinitely, the Austrians argued for what has been called, by one critic, the "hangover theory," according to which any attempt to artificially stimulate the economy through a policy of credit inflation and low interest rates is bound to fail in the long run, so that any attempt to prevent a recession by lowering the interest rate can only wind up making things worse. Now while the Austrian theory in all its manifold details may not provide us with an entirely adequate description of economic reality, it is difficult to argue with the premise that artificially lowering the interest rate through easy money policies must lead to serious economic dislocations down the road. The cluelessness in regard to this issue demonstrated by most academic economists and by investment analysts merely proves the inveterate irrationality of the majority of the human race and the tremendous influence of wishful thinking on those who do not have the guts to see things as they are. There is no better introduction to Austrian trade cycle theory than this modest book which includes essays by von Mises, Hayek, Halberler, and Rothbard. The theory is presented in a clear, succinct manner, so that even economic illiterates have a chance to understand it. Roger Garrison provides an excellent introduction and summary.

Although I regard the Austrian theory as the best so far promulgated, this should not be construed as a full-hearted endorsement of the theory. In many important respects, the theory is flawed. Specifically, the theory suffers from two major shortcomings: (1) it is derived entirely from rationalistic speculation based on oversimplified generalizations of economic reality; and (2) it tacitly assumes that human behavior and motivation is far more rational than the facts would suggest. Given these weaknesses, it's not surprising that only the extreme rationalists within the Austrian movement except the theory in toto, and that many who once accepted (including even Haberler, one of the contributors to this volume) later rejected it. Perhaps the main reason for this rejection is the view that what causes the recession (or depression) is misallocation of resources within the capital structure. When interest rates are artificially lowered, this leads (according to the Austrian theory) to over-investment in more durable over less durable capital industries and for temporally more remote rather than less remote stages of production. This part of the theory has not sit well even with those economists who might otherwise be sympathetic to it. This is a pity, because this portion of the theory is not even necessary for explaining the phenomenon of economic recessions. In fact, they can be explained in virtue of credit expansion alone. The key is to merely understand that credit expansion through fractional reserve banking (or the equivalent thereof) is equivalent to debt expansion, since debt is merely the obverse side of credit. But it should be obvious to those whose common sense has not been debauched by too much Keynsianism that expansion of debt through fractional reserves cannot be carried on indefinitely, since debt of this kind is tantamount to leveraged debt and becomes more and more like a ponzi scheme the longer the banking and treasury authorities allow it to go on.

Book Description

In the first full biography of Friedrich Hayek (1899 1992), Alan Ebenstein chronicles the life, works, and legacy of the visionary thinker, from his early years in fin-de-siècle Vienna to his remarkable career as a Nobel Prize winning economist, political philosopher, and leading public intellectual. Ebenstein gives a balanced, integrated account of Hayek's diverse body of work, from his first encounter with free market ideas to his magisterial writings in later life on the legal, political, ethical, and economic requirements of a free society.

Customer Reviews:

Hayek: The Anti-Fabian.......2005-01-02

Until nearly the end of the 20th century, Friedrich Hayek seemed to be destined to be ignored and to remain in the backdrop of economic, political and philosophical history. Keynesian economics ruled, with its reliance upon state control of the levers of the economy. Hayek's vision of a renewed classical liberalism with free markets and individualism cut against the conventional intellectual wisdom of his day. Despite that, Hayek was convinced that total systems such as socialism or communism would lead to tyranny. Hayek argued that the Keynesian viewpoint, because of its reliance upon state controls, was destined to limit individual's liberty.

Hayek believed that there was an inevitable conflict between socialism and freedom. He argued passionately, and at times he was a solitary voice, for freedom and liberty. Today with the collapse of communism and the resurgence of free markets across the globe, Hayek's ideas have gained new prominence. Hayek's intellectual contributions to our world in terms of political science, philosophy, and economics can not be underestimated.

The author, Alan Ebenstein, holds a Ph.D. in economics. His account of Hayek's life is illuminating, not covering just his economic and philosophical contributions. Ebenstein covers Hayek's life from the early years and his flirtations with Fabianism (the advancement of socialist ideas through gradual means and through the insertion of its ideas into intellectual circles of influence) through to his legacy as a visionary thinker. Ebenstein's biography of Hayek's life appears to be fair and balanced on the whole. Since the author is a trained economist, you can see the benefit of his background throughout the biography without the dulling effects many associate with the dismal science. If you want to learn more about Hayek the man and his ideas, this is an ideal and recommended book.

A middle class economics hero's life........2003-07-28

This biography has many short chapters, and displays a considerable balance. The structure of the book reflects the nature of Hayek's thoughts. "Hayek put forward the difficult idea of spontaneous order. In a spontaneous order, individuals may exchange and interact with one another as they desire. There is no central management of individual decision making." (p. 3). The fame of Friedrich Hayek is associated mainly with the political views needed to maintain a thriving economy as much as with the idea that no one person knows everything that is going on in an economy which functions as Adam Smith pictured, with each person acting in his own interest in order to produce the mix of goods and services that best provides the needs of all. Adam Smith is listed in the index, but not quite as much as Milton Friedman, who is occasionally mentioned as being more popular than Hayek, as well as more correct in the analysis of monetary policy in the United States at the start of the great depression.

Hayek finished a law degree and a second degree in political science from the University of Vienna before he lived in the United States from March 1923 to May 1924. (p. 31). One of his first economic articles in 1924 was "on American monetary policy suggesting that an expansionist credit policy leads to an overdevelopment of capital goods industries and ultimately to a crisis. . . . So I put in that article a long footnote sketching an outline of what ultimately became my explanation of industrial fluctuations. . . . A rate of interest which is inappropriately low offers to the individual sectors of the economy an advantage which is greater the more remote is their product from the consumption stage." (p. 41). The Federal Reserve Bank had been designed to keep the economy moving by offering great deals to capitalists, but when Hayek noted the tendency to produce instability, he became the head "of the evolution of Austrian business cycle theory." (p. 41). When the depression became the lowest point reached by the American economy in the 20th century, Hayek continued to think that low interest rates in the 1920s had produced the instability which produced it, while Milton Friedman produced a monetary explanation which is more widely accepted.

Public opinion is often a matter of simplifications which avoid the complexity that real problems present. Chapter 8, on Keynes, quotes Keynes attacking Marxism as if Marxism were nothing but a public opinion. "How can I adopt a creed which, preferring the mud to the fish, exalts the boorish proletariat above the bourgeois and intelligentsia who, with whatever faults, are the quality of life and surely carry the seeds of all human advancement?" (p. 68). German was a problem for Keynes, who wrote "in German I can only understand what I know already!" (p. 70). Hayek tried to review Keynes' TREATISE ON MONEY for an English journal, "Economica," when he was about to start teaching at the London School of Economics. Keynes seemed to think that his criticism could be characterized as "The wild duck has dived down to the bottom--as deep as she can get--and bitten fast hold of the weed and tangle and all the rubbish that is down there, and it would need an extraordinarily clever dog to dive after and fish her up again." (pp. 357-358). Hayek was allowed to publish a reply in the "Economic Journal" edited by Keynes "to an article by Piero Sraffa attacking him, and concluded his reply, `I venture to believe that Mr. Keynes would fully agree with me in ... that he [Sraffa] has understood Mr. Keynes' theory even less than he has my own.' Keynes then footnoted, `I should like to say that, to the best of my comprehension, Mr. Sraffa has understood my theory accurately.' " (p. 72). The finishing touches on this argument are complex. Keynes wrote that his footnote was appended to Hayek's reply "with Prof. Hayek's permission," (p. 72), a sure sign that Keynes was amused at agreeing far more with Sraffa, however Hayek might feel about it, and that he had done everything he could to force Hayek to see it his way.

Hayek was admired most for his popular book, THE ROAD TO SERFDOM, which considered central planning in control of an economy as a major step on the way to totalitarianism. He expected his book, THE CONSTITUTION OF LIBERTY, to appeal to the same readers, but when it was published on February 9, 1960, people had other concerns. In "The New York Times Book Review," Sydney Hook presented the mainstream economic opposition to Hayek's major concerns. "He is an intellectual tonic. But in our present time of troubles, his economic philosophy points the road to disaster." (p. 203).

Considering disasters in the area of economics, it is difficult to counter the idea that any government program offers the kind of deviation from stability that anyone would expect from a drunken bat. One idea that was almost popular at the end of the 20th century was a lockbox, where workers' money could be kept until it was time for them to retire. Hayek followed John Locke in thinking that civil government can maintain an impartial liberty through "certain basic rules on everybody." (p. 224). LAW, LEGISLATION AND LIBERTY was supposed to provide some guidelines, but there was no lockbox in the title, or in the title of any of Hayek's books. Now tax law has changed, as a basic incentive for a rise in the price of common stock, without safeguards to see that income is taxed even once. Speculation seems to be the common assumption upon which everyone is now to be satisfied. Actually, I suppose the government might never stop flying around like a drunken bat. For all the complexity in this book, it is much less like a drunken bat than the opinions I find in any newspaper.

An Important Man, A Poor Biography -1.8 on a scale of 1 to 5.......2003-05-28

Hayek's life deserves-no demands- a biography of the highest order. I read Hayek in my studies in college and I was fascinated by his theories. He was a man who thought and wrote on profound economic issues.
This biography, while seemingly well researched, does a disservice to the man. I (and a book club for an ivy league college) found it poorly written and structured. Sentences, paragraphs and thoughts collide.
I would only recommend this book to diehard Hayek groupies (though it may cause pain). Individuals who want to learn more about him might benefit from skimming through the book. However, I would caution those individuals who seek out intelligent biographies of interesting people-that despite Hayek's very interesting life, this is not an intelligent biography worthy of him.

overrated.......2002-12-07

Ebenstein's biography of Hayek is well received, as the other reviews testify. It's informative, readable, and generally fair-minded. Nevertheless I feel that the merits of this book do not deserve such high praise as was given, even by such outstanding men as Friedman. Ebenstein's understanding of Hayek's ideas is narrow and derivative, his portrayal of the man is flat. Above all, the most fundamental aspect of Hayek's thought, namely his elucidation of a complex spontaneous order (independent of the properties of the elements), is neglected. Ebenstein also completely misunderstood Hayek's criticism of Mill, which is characterized as unfair in this book. This is no minor misunderstanding, as what's at stake is Hayek's attack on the concept of social justice, again one of the most important parts of his political philosophy. Reading this book, one gets the impression that Ebenstein is a hard-working, sincere, and intelligent fellow. But as the author of the first substantial biography of Hayek, he simply does not possess enough learning or insight to carry out this task adequately.

A readable and realistic biography.......2002-07-11

This biography is one of those that once you start reading, you can't put it down! This long-overdue biography on Hayek is more of a commentary upon his major works and thoughts, interwoven with the major movements within his life.Most personal reflections of the man himself come from people who, in most cases, only knew him briefly or in limited circumstances, which is one of the major weaknesses of the work. However, the insights into the man are, at times, critical and help to remind us that the great man was human! Yet, one is left with the feeling that there is much more to be revealed, not so much about his weaknesses, but his undoubted greatness! This book is a MUST for every lover of Hayek. But there is room, in the future, for a further biography, written in the same strain as Skidelsky's excellent work on Keynes

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THE ROAD TO SERFDOM.
friedrich A. Foreword by John Chamberlain. Hayek
Manufacturer: George Routledge
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Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O9EKV2

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Germane in the 1940s...and Germane Today!
Socialism = Fascism
Essential and perspective-altering.
The best anti-socialism book
Australian School of Economics at its Worst

The Road to Serfdom
Friedrich A. Hayek
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
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Binding: Audio Cassette

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Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition
Free to Choose: A Personal Statement
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Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics

ASIN: 0786100508

Customer Reviews:

Germane in the 1940s...and Germane Today!.......2007-06-25

F.A. Hayek wrote "The Road to Serfdom" in 1944 to decry the increase of government control over economic planning, which he believed led to totalitarianism. There are at least a dozen quotations in the book which are the intellectual equivalent of Larry Bird threading the needle through three opposing players to Kevin McHale for an uncontested layup. A sampling:

"The number of dangerous mistakes we have made before and since the outbreak of war because we do not understand the opponent with whom we are faced is appalling. It seems almost as if we did not want to understand the development which has produced totalitarianism because such an understanding might destroy some of the dearest illusions to which we are determined to cling."

"The Nazi leader who described the National Socialist revolution as a counter-Renaissance spoke more truly than he probably knew. It was the decisive step in the destruction of that civilization which modern man had built up from the age of the Renaissance and which was, above all, an individualist civilization. Individualism has a bad name today, and the term has come to be connected with egotism and selfishness...But the essential features of that individualism which, from elements provided by Christianity and the philosophy of classical antiquity, was first fully developed during the Renaissance and has since grown and spread into what we now know as Western civilization--are the respect for the individual man qua man, that is, the recognition of his own views and tastes as supreme in his own sphere, however narrowly that may be circumscribed, and the belief that it is desirable that men should develop their own individual gifts and bents."

"The most effective way of making everybody serve the single system of ends toward the social plan is directed is to make everybody believe in those ends. To make a totalitarian system function effectively, it is not enough that everybody should be forced to work for the same ends. It is essential that the people should come to regard them as their own ends. Although the beliefs must be chosen for the people and imposed on them, they must become their beliefs, a generally accepted creed which makes the individuals as far as possible act spontaneously in the way the planner wants. If the feeling of oppression in totalitarian countries is in general much less acute than most people in liberal countries imagine, this is because the totalitarian governments succeed to a high degree in making people think as they want them to."

"The desire to force upon the people a creed which is regarded as salutary for them is, of course, not a thing which is new or peculiar to our time. New, however, is the argument by which many of our intellectuals try to justify such attempts. There is no real freedom of thought in our country, so it is said, because the opinions and tastes of the masses are shaped by propaganda, by advertising, by the example of the upper classes, and by other environmental factors which inevitably force the thinking of the people into well-worn grooves. From this it is concluded that if the ideals and tastes of the great majority are always fashioned by circumstances which we can control, we ought to use this power deliberately to turn the thoughts of the people in what we think is a desirable direction."

Wow. No wonder the self-proclaimed smart set of the Forties panned "The Road to Serfdom" as a "sad and angry little book" and "unfit for publication by a reputable house".

Hayek says in this book what non-Christian (Aldous Huxley in "Brave New World") and Christian (Francis Schaeffer in "How Should We Then Live") authors have also posited, but does so perhaps even more forcefully.

While there is certainly no paucity of people today who want increased government control in the economy, in 2007 Hayek's tome could apply equally to cultural liberalism and the political correctness movement. I wonder what Hayek, Huxley, and Schaeffer would say today if they could see the social engineers, liberals, postmodernists, and numerous perennial and professional "victim" groups who attempt to use their faux victim status to gain their subtle and shadowy control over the lives of Americans.

This book is justly considered a classic defense of freedom and limited government more than a half-century after its publication.

Socialism = Fascism.......2007-05-23

Frederich August Hayek

"To those who have watched the transition from socialism to fascism at close quarters, the connection between the two systems is obvious. The realization of the socialist program means the destruction of freedom. Democratic socialism, the great utopia of the last few generations, is simply not achievable."

"The guiding principle of any attempt to create a world of free men is this. A policy of freedom for the individual is the only truly progressive policy."

Essential and perspective-altering........2007-05-06

Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" argues that socialism, however well-intentioned, nonetheless leads to totalitarian dictatorship if policies of centralized economic planning are carried out systematically. Especially strong in dissecting the left-wing intellectual climate that led Germany between the world wars down the path to National Socialism, Hayek warns his audience, the English public during World War II, that much the same intellectual climate exists in England. Sixty years later, Hayek's bogeymen - Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin - have been defeated; yet "The Road to Serfdom" remains compelling not only because one can observe similar dangerous intellectual, political, and economic trends existing today in the United States - the desire for more government regulation, the growing prestige of and reliance on technological advancement, the devaluation of moral reasoning, and the shrinking of the middle class, to name a few - but also because Hugo Chavez, a socialist leader of exactly the type Hayek discusses, grabs more power, money, followers, and headlines by the month.

The best anti-socialism book.......2007-04-30

Hayek dealt so many brutal blows to socialism, it is hard to imagine that a pro-socialist program could come close to answering them all. His arguments were particularly appealing to me, because they were of a more pragmatic nature than some of the idealistic anti-socialists (such as Ayn Rand and Rothbard). Hayek was very skeptical of the concept of a mixed economy, but ironically this book may have contributed to the ability of countries to maintain a mixed economy without falling down the "Road to Serfdom".

Australian School of Economics at its Worst.......2007-04-19

Mr Hayek's cartoon entitled The Road to Serfdom is clearly a ripoff of Ayn Rand's very good Anthem. Why he was awarded the Nobel Prize is beyond me.

Verdict: Silly in retrospect and totally unoriginal

Hayek on Hayek: An Autobiographical Dialogue (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek)

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Master of free trade arguments
The Life of Hayek

Hayek on Hayek: An Autobiographical Dialogue (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek)
F. A. Hayek
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: 0226320626

Book Description

The crumbling of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the iron curtain, and the Reagan and Thatcher "revolutions" all owe a tremendous debt to F. A. Hayek. Economist, social and political theorist, and intellectual historian, Hayek passionately championed individual liberty and condemned the dangers of state control. Now Hayek at last tells the story of his long and controversial career, during which his fortunes rose, fell, and finally rose again.

Through a complete collection of previously unpublished autobiographical sketches and a wide selection of interviews, Hayek on Hayek provides the first detailed chronology of Hayek's early life and education, his intellectual progress, and the academic and public reception of his ideas. His discussions range from economic methodology and the question of religious faith to the atmosphere of post-World War I Vienna and the British character.

Born in 1899 into a Viennese family of academics and civil servants, Hayek was educated at the University of Vienna, fought in the Great War, and later moved to London, where, as he watched liberty vanish under fascism and communism across Europe, he wrote The Road to Serfdom. Although this book attracted great public attention, Hayek was ignored by other economists for thirty years after World War II, when European social democracies boomed and Keynesianism became the dominant intellectual force. However, the award of the Nobel Prize in economics for 1974 signaled a reversal in Hayek's fortunes, and before his death in 1992 he saw his life's work vindicated in the collapse of the planned economies of Eastern Europe.

Hayek on Hayek is as close to an autobiography of Hayek as we will ever have. In his own eloquent words, Hayek reveals the remarkable life of a revolutionary thinker in revolutionary times.

"One of the great thinkers of our age who explored the promise and contours of liberty....[Hayek] revolutionized the world's intellectual and political life"--President George Bush, on awarding F. A. Hayek the Medal of Freedom

F. A. Hayek, recipient of the Medal of Freedom 1991 and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974, was a pioneer in monetary theory and the principal proponent of the libertarian philosophy. Hayek is the author of numerous books in economics, as well as books in political philosophy and psychology.

Customer Reviews:

Master of free trade arguments.......2003-07-21

Concern for the self in this book zeroes in on the intellectual basis for a tremendous reputation in free world economics. It is by and about Friedrich August von Hayek, who died on March 23, 1992. Most of the 170 pages are devoted to the years leading up to THE ROAD TO SERFDOM, which Hayek wrote during World War II and published in 1944. The "autobiographical notes that Hayek wrote over a period of years beginning in 1945," (p. ix) which are used throughout the book, tend to look back into his past. Part Three, beginning on page 99, explains that the war provided a setting for thinking and writing "studies on the abuse and decline of reason to which I had devoted the first two years of the war." (p. 99). Part Three ends with a transcript (pp. 110-123) of a Radio Discussion, April 22, 1945, with University of Chicago assistant professor of economics Maynard C. Krueger, national chairman of the Socialist party, who ran as vice-presidential candidate on the national Socialist ticket in 1940, and Professor Emeritus Charles E. Merriam, who served three terms as alderman on the Chicago "City Council, and in 1911 was narrowly defeated for mayor of Chicago." (p. 109).

The discussion begins with a few pages on planning. When directly questioned about TVA, Hayek responded, "There is a great deal of the TVA to which no economist in repute, and certainly not the laissez-faire people, will object. . . . If the hydroelectric power really could not have been provided by private enterprise, I have no objection." (p. 113). If you really want economic growth, Hayek has a point, "where you can create a competitive situation, you ought to rely upon competition." (p. 113). This might be the same point: "I am a convinced free-trader, and free trade is part of the same philosophy." (p. 115).

The former alderman, Merriam, notes how the competition of ideas may result in the opposite of Hayek's ideal. "It was not the fact of communism but the fear of communism that was the most powerful factor in the development of Naziism." (p. 117). The argument gets back to planning, as Hayek says, "That method of central planning which is proposed as an alternative method of organizing production to take the place of competition means that a government, or some central authority, must take complete control of the resources." (p. 119). "Most of the war controls are central planning, but it is only temporary. ... During the war, we all have to go to some extent totalitarian." (p. 119).

If people have truly lost control of the government whenever it puts itself in a war unnecessarily, the socialist Krueger might be addressing everybody when he asserts, "You seem to place no faith whatsoever in the political process as a means of keeping government responsible to the people. Is that really your position? Do you have no faith in the political process as a means of establishing responsibility?" Hayek is as contrary as possible on this point. "I am quite convinced that it cannot be effectively controlled by the democratic process. It requires a degree of agreement among people which we can never expect in a free society." (p. 121). One sure quality of death, particularly during wartime, is that we will never hear a live broadcast of those three thinkers on the radio again. Since television has cut attention spans, Merriam might be truer than he knew then about Hayek's chapter of THE ROAD TO SERFDOM "on `Why the Worst Get on Top,' you seem to express grave doubts about the ability of a democratic society to accomplish much. You say, for example, that the more intelligent people are, the less likely they are to agree." (p. 122). Who would be willing to apply Hayek's concluding sentence to a current catastrophe -- lacking any economic sense, but costing billions -- American activities in Iraq? "I had realized that some kind of state action is extremely dangerous. Therefore, my whole effort was to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate action. I have attempted to do that by saying that, so far as the government plans for competition or steps in where competition cannot possibly do the job, there is no objection; but I believe that all the other forms of government activity are highly dangerous." (p. 123).

Part Four starts out with some "wholly abstract problems." (p. 125). He spent years writing THE CONSTITUTION OF LIBERTY, "so that I was able to take the finished manuscript to my American publishers on my sixtieth birthday, May 8, 1959." (p. 130). Most of us were a lot younger back then, and to escape retirement at the age of 65, Hayek moved back to Germany. While the conversations quoted in this book are often after that date, they usually refer to what occurred in the years when he was most active in what was going on in the world. As a thinker, it is not surprising that he made more money than Karl Marx. The Index of Persons and Places on pages 161-170 is one of the best I have seen for explaining who each person mentioned in the book was, with more about Lord John Acton than about Achilles, and not much on Karl Marx (1818-1883). A question that he was asked in an interview printed in Reason magazine (July 1992), supposed that Joseph Schumpeter had been more right than Marx on how governments could be more responsible for "the collapse of capitalism due, not to its weakness (as Marx had predicted), but due to its strengths." (p. 154). Hayek could enjoy this paradox of Schumpeter, "that capitalism was certainly much better but it will not be allowed to last, while socialism is very bad but it is bound to come." (p. 154). Democracy allows the freedom for people to complain in ways that can inspire the government to make things worse, if I am catching the drift.

The Life of Hayek.......2000-03-24

This book about Hayek's life in Hayek's eye. It contains not only his academic life, but also his way in looking the world. This is a readable introduction to Hayek's philosophy, not because it has presented some theoies, but because it has provided the necessary introduction on this man--Hayek.

Hayek's Journey: The Mind of Friedrich Hayek

Average customer rating:

Not as good as I'd hoped
A valuable thematic supplement
Another disppointing treatment of Hayek
Recommended.
Only goes so far in explaining the genius

Hayek's Journey: The Mind of Friedrich Hayek
Alan Ebenstein
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1403960380

Book Description

While Alan Ebenstein's biography of Friedrich Hayek was the first biography of this major twentieth-century thinker, the book itself was not an exploration of his work. Hayek's Journey is the follow-up volume that gives readers an in-depth look at the evolution of Hayek's thought, the influence of the Austrian School of Economics, and the roles of Witt-gen-stein, Freud, and others in his thinking. This is a classic of Hayek scholarship written in lucid prose and a brilliant companion piece to Ebenstein's biography.

Customer Reviews:

Not as good as I'd hoped.......2006-11-16

Having read this book without first reading Ebenstein's companion biography on Hayek, perhaps my criticism is not fully warranted, but this book seemed to fall a little short. Hayek is unarguably a fascinating thinker and my hope when picking this up was to learn how that thinking developed: how for example did he wrestle to change from his early socialist leanings when confronted with the problem of economic calculation. There is a lot of interesting factual information to be found in the book, but it is disjointed and ultimately a little frustrating to read. Perhaps Ebenstein's companion biography on Hayak's life reads a little smoother and expresses more of a compelling narrative, and this is just an unfortunate result of a failed biographical mind body split.

All this being said I still think many will still find the book worth a read. There is much to be gained in exploring Hayek - kind of like if I were to take a photograph of a supper model with a point and shoot camera, I'd end up with a picture worth viewing, but not because of my exemplary photographic skills. Eberstein doesn't take the greatest picture of Hayek but based on the merit of the subject I'd still recommend taking a look.

A valuable thematic supplement.......2004-05-18

In this readable volume, Ebenstein offers an overview of Hayek's thought organized thematically rather than chronologically. It is meant as a companion volume to Ebenstein's biography of Hayek, but I read it as a supplement to Caldwell's intellectual biography, Hayek's Challenge.

Being only modestly acquainted with 20th century history, and even less so on economic and political theories, I strongly endorse reading a historical account of Hayek prior to considering this thematic presentation. Hayek was a man of his time, passionately contending with political ideologies and economic centralization that he felt threatened individual liberties. In my view, a historical approach can more aptly express the interplay of social, cultural, and personal influences that shaped Hayek's life and thought.

Be that as it may, Ebenstein has done a fine job in this book. Each chapter is devoted to a specific idea of, or a major influence on, Hayek. Foundational ideas incorporated into Hayek's thought are discussed (Darwinianism, German historicism, Austrian school economics) as are significant works that denoted major changes in his thought. Individual chapters deal with Mises, Keynes, Friedman and Popper, and another contrasts Hayek's thought with Marx, Mill, and Freud. Hayek's major economic thought is address in chapters devoted to both his early years and his later work.

I recommend this book primarily as a ready and current reference for the ongoing debates and interpretations of Hayek. Ebenstein's Bibliographical Essay on the collected works of Hayek may be an essential source for those studying this man.

Another disppointing treatment of Hayek.......2004-01-13

I read Ebenstein's biography of Hayek with high expectations, only to find the work disjointed, inadequate, and incomplete, and I was left with the feeling that either the author did not understand Hayek, had problems expressing himself or did not do adequate research.

When this title hit the bookshops, I immediately purchased a copy thinking that this volume would make up for the inadequacies of the first. But again, I am left with the feeling that a better work on the life and writings of the great Von Hayek is still to be written!

Recommended........2003-10-14

A very good starting point for those who have heard about Hayek and his ideas, but are not ready to jump into the details of his other works. A few well known traders say that to do well in the stock market, one must have a good understanding of the thinking of the Austrian School.

This book summarizes the ideas and discusses his many books, most of which are currently in print. It is written in an easy to read style. It may help you decide which of Hayek's works to read first.

I enjoyed it.

Only goes so far in explaining the genius.......2003-10-13

Frederich Hayek was a genius who happened upon his brilliance by both nature and nurture. He lived in an era which thought it not unusual to work in both the physical and social sciences. In Hayek's case it was most important that his first love was biology since the evolutionary underpinnings of society were fundamental to his approach to the social sciences.

He is today remembered for such classics as THE FATAL CONCEIT, THE CONSTITUTION OF LIBERTY and especially THE ROAD TO SERFDOM. He excelled in many categories and it was this fusion of various fields that made his work so unique and so vital. Starting as a scientist in the tradition of Ernest Mach, he soon began studies in economics, particularly value. From semi-Socialist leanings he became convinced of the link between economic and political freedom. This was the subtext of THE ROAD TO SERFDOM.

His argument against collectivism and central-run economies are as valid today as they were in the early part of last century. Central economies fail because 1) Society has too much knowledge to be centrally commanded (2) all economic decisions become political and thus authoritarian and noncreative and (3) there is no way to set value (price) under Socialism.

THE SENSORY ORDER dealt with epistomology, then he branched out to philosophy and politics. As an example of how Socialist we have become, Hayek's views were called ""liberal" and are now called "conservative" despite the fact that they're unchanged. He wrote one piece "WHY I AM NOT A CONSERVATIVE" which is a clarion call for libertarianism and classical liberalism.

The book examines the clashes between intellectual giants - von Mises, Popper, Mach, Wittgenstein (his cousin) and others. He was a secularist, a capitalist and a political liberal in the classical sense. His work on monetary policy still affects us (adjusting interest rates to increase or decrease the money supply, "floating" currencies externally). His influence with Western politicians and intellectual leaders was and is huge. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in appreciation for his many contributions.

Almost as an afterward Hayek issued a brilliant statement. The aim of all economists is the increase in material wealth. He wanted this accomplished through an increase in wealth (capitalism) rather than a confiscation / redistribution of wealth (socialism / central run economies). The battle between these two points of view are with us today.

A Time for Truth
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Prophetic Reminder of what "Conservative" Used to Mean

Good Book By William Simon!

Remembering Mr. Simon....he was a formidable intellect....

Outstanding overview of economics

A real eye-opener.

A Time for Truth
William E. Simon
Manufacturer: Reader's Digest Association
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Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews:

Prophetic Reminder of what "Conservative" Used to Mean.......2006-03-03

First of all, I must issue a disclaimer that I have belonged and do belong to the group of people who identify themselves as 'liberals'. I must also say that although I disagree with most of Simon's overall general observations about liberalism itself, I do agree with some of his observations of liberals in particular. However, I mostly I admire the late William Simon himself, and this conservative treatise as being sincerely candid and, indeed, prophetic. (Also, Edith Efron, Simon's ghostwriter, must be credited with the book's elegant cadence.)

In fact, I recommend shaking off some of the dust from the pages of this old, yellowed paperback especially to Republicans who today, in the estimation of this reviewer, have lost touch with the conservative heritage of their party. In short, I write this review as much paying homage as a member of Simon's loyal opposition.

Although in 'A Time For Truth', copyrighted 1978, Simon clearly displayed his partisan credentials, he also left no illusion that if Republicans were ever to take control of the government, they may very well create in their own image the very centralized absolutist state which Simon believed had been established by the Democrats of his era.

Simon greatly feared seemingly "uncontrollable" spending and national debt. He regarded deficit spending on his own watch during the Nixon administration as an experiment gone horribly wrong, from which he learned a profound lesson. As Nixon's Secretary of Treasury, he actually took responsibility (the forgotten virtue of conservatives) for the government's failed energy policies, which are ironically usually attributed to Carter, who actually inherited the crisis.

Simon's self-admitted angry tone in 'A Time For Truth' was in reaction to a growing national debt, and its accompanying bureaucracy, which as of 12/31/1980, at the end of Jimmy Carter's term, according to the Bureau of Public Debt (which they rounded off to millions) was a total $930,210,000,000.00 -- or $930.2 billion. What would have been Simon's reaction to the public debt on 12/30/1988, at the end of Ronald Reagan's term, of $2,602,337,712,041.16 -- or $2.6 trillion? Or on 12/30/1992, at the end of George H.W. Bush's term, a sum of $4,064,620,655,521.66 -- or $4 trillion? Would Simon issue the same outrage at the government, under Reagan's watch, more than doubling the national debt, and under Reagan and Bush cumulatively more than quadrupling the debt? Reagan had a readily-available explanation for this: Congress, still under control of the democrats.

What then would Simon say about the national debt under George W. Bush, who presides during a republican-controlled congress? As of 9/28/2001, the debt was $5,807,463,412,200.06 -- or $5.8 trillion and has grown to $8,269,768,312,946.41 -- over $8 trillion, in the month of this writing, 3/01/2006 ?

Of course, the 'War on Terror' will be among the top explanations given by republicans today. However Simon did not leave the impression that this would be an acceptable excuse. Besides the total defense budget for fiscal year 2006 being $419.3 billion; a comparatively small portion of the total debt of over $2.6 trillion, Simon repudiated any increased spending without cutting other expenses or raising taxes to pay for that spending.

One interesting feature of this book is an early mention and even a definition for "neo-conservative". Simon saw them as among the allies of true conservatives, though he saw "neo-conservatives" as too interventionist. It is perhaps telling that on pg. 118 Simon described an exchange with then chief of staff, Donald Rumsfeld, who accused Simon of "betraying" Ford for criticizing his budget of $51.9 billion as "horrendous." One would be tempted to wonder what Simon, being a staunch fiscal conservative who despised and feared spiraling government spending and abyssmal deficits, would say today to the heritors of his party. However, in 'A Time For Truth' Simon himself indeed issued such dire warnings:

"The only thing that can save the Republican Party, in fact, a counterintelligensia. Without such a reservoir of antiauthoritarian scholarship on which to draw, it is destined to remain the Stupid Party and to die. It may even deserve to die. A political party which declares itself philosophically committed to freedom but allows an economic dictatorship to emerge in the United States without stirring up the fiercest political donnybrook in American history has asked for the oblivion to which it is presently being consigned." --pg. 255

For its time this book must have indeed seemed like an unexpected breath of fresh air issued from the unlikely source of a figure who served under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Today 'A Time For Truth' seems as much a badge of honor for conservatives as an albatross for the Republican Party.

It is an irony that in 2002 and again in 2003 William E. Simon, Jr. ran, though unsuccessfully, as the republican candidate for Governor of California during another energy crisis, finally throwing his grudging support behind another republican.

Now a national debt of under a trillion dollars seems like 'The Good 'Ole Days'. It seems to this reviewer that, though Simon's observations about spending policies of Democrats in the 1970s were indeed relevant, the same observations also apply to today's Republicans, if not more relevantly. Simon was a devotee of Adam Smith and the 'invisible hand' of the free market (historically the quarter of liberalism.) Simon warned of government subsidies and tax examptions for corporations, but instead insisted that only a competitive market would produce wealth. As William E. Simon seemed to prefer simple principles and over-arching abstractions over micromanagement and minutiae, I think it is appropriate to add that, in my view, Simon's warnings simply confirm the old adage that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

William E. Simon died in June of 2000. Between this and his time of public service under Nixon/Ford, true to the conscience of a sincere human being, he was privately active as a member of the Order of the Knights of Malta as a philanthropist and volunteer in service of terminally ill and destitute patients.

Good Book By William Simon!.......2003-03-07

When you begin reading this book it turns into an interesting
read. The book is authored by William Simon who served as the
Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Simon relates to you his beliefs and philosphies about the free market system.Simon had done well with this system
becoming mega wealthy.Simon attempts sucessfully to warn the
American peopleabout the unbreakable connection between economic
and political freedom.He warns that the expanding state is taking these freedoms away. A very interesting read by a very
wise man. Read this book. You will like it.

Remembering Mr. Simon....he was a formidable intellect...........2000-06-11

With the passing of Mr. Simon I was reminded of his book, A TIME FOR TRUTH. I read this great book 20 years ago while picking up what was remaining of my horrific beginning foray in college and working full-time in the vaults of Morgan Guaranty (J.P. Morgan).

I credit Mr. Simon's book with helping to turn my life around and giving me the paternal leadership I was lacking. It's a marvelous book about how our illustrious and bellicose Congress of the United States dupes the American public with it's tax and spend policies and offers us a chance to reaquaint ourselves with our great founding principles. Without principles we are nothing...

In 1986 while in the USMCR I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Simon while pulling guard duty at a MC Scholarship Fund dinner. I was thrilled.

My sincere sympathies go out to his family.

Outstanding overview of economics.......2000-06-04

A must-read for anyone concerned not just about our country's economic future, but about personal freedom as well. Easy to read, trenchant, and incisive. William E. Simon comes across as one of our nation's greatest (and most overlooked) thinkers.

A real eye-opener........2000-03-01

The effect of central government planning is shocking. William Simon's foresight is excellent as we now sit with a post-cold war Russia. A strong recommend if you care at all about taxes. The current socialist movement in America should be stopped short.

Hayek's Challenge: An Intellectual Biography of F.A. Hayek

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Wide Ranging, Lively and Clear
Are we having fun yet?
An other opinion heard from
Amazing bio of an amazing thinker!
Caldwell, B. Hayek's Challenge

Hayek's Challenge: An Intellectual Biography of F.A. Hayek
Bruce Caldwell
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0226091910

Book Description

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.

Customer Reviews:

Wide Ranging, Lively and Clear.......2006-05-21

This is one of the best non-fiction books I have read in a long time. I have no idea how I came to buy this - I rarely read biographies, consider myself left-wing, am a computer programmer who was educated as a physicist (so have no background in economics), and only vaguely recognise his name - so must assume someone recommended it to me. Whoever that person was: Thank-you!

I think there are two things that makes this such a good read. Most important is the subject matter - Hayek seems to have been a pretty smart chap who was interested by, and contributed to, a wide range of subjects, at a time (the latter 2/3s of the twentieth century) when a lot was happening. And because he kept shifting fields and, to some extent, revising his opinions, you get to watch the evolution of a wide range of disciplines.

So this book touches on subjects like scientific methodology; emergent behaviours; how money acts as a way to signal information; the foundations of economics (do you have to assume everyone is "perfectly greedy", for example?); models of consciousness; evolutionary biology and group selection - interesting problems that are relevant today, presented in a historical context that is extremely helpful in understanding their peculiarities. Maybe it sounds crazy (or stupid), but until I read this book I had no idea how history could be so useful, relevant and informative.

Much credit must also go (my "second reason") to the author - I think this is impressively well written. Caldwell is a very careful guide who takes pains not only to justify what he says, but also gently directs you through what could be a terribly confusing and complex journey by identifying common threads, summarizing discussions, and repeatedly placing everything within its proper context. Please write another book (how about Popper?)!

Are we having fun yet? .......2006-01-22

I do not know who the target audience was here, but it certainly was not me, and I am a big Hayek fan. This book is way over my head. Perhaps a doctorate in economics or philosophy would make this work easier to read, but I don't think the average intelligent, interested reader will want to struggle though this material. It never comes up for air.

An other opinion heard from.......2005-08-29

First off, I want to echo the other reviewers in my praise for the book. The background in economic history was valuable to me and helps put the work that Hayek did into perspective. Though it may be "academic" (any look at the philosophy behind economics is probably not for the same audience as more instrumental books -- like "How to be successful" or whatever). That being said the book is well written and if anyone is interested in the influence of positivism on economics, the division of psychology and economics into separate disciplines, the roots of socialism and other foundational material, this book presents that information in a logical, clear way.

It cautions at the beginning that Hayek's work was complex and interdependent. There is a tendancy to take a paragraph by Hayek from one place and use it as a representation of the whole, like the blind men and the elephant. I would suggest strongly that to call him foundational in the current US conversativism is probably wrong. One clue is that as an extra to the "Constitution of Liberty" there is an essay by Hayek called "Why I am not a conservative."

Hayek was fascinated with "knowledge" in the sense that somehow humans manage to coordiante activity and believe that we share knowledge, but in reality it is not possible. Each of sees what we see and we do not see what others see. Somehow, unconsciously, we have evolved a way of being able to use the knowledge of others as well as our own.

His argument against socialism was basically that it breaks some of the ways of knowing what others are doing. A standard definition of Economics is that it is about how people make decisions in conditions of scarcity. In other words, there is an assumption that there is never enough to go around. If you think about it, even people with virtually unlimited amounts of money still compete with each other for status and other such things. We are all often in a position that if we choose X, then we cannot have Y.

Hayek thinks that that decision should be left up to the individual. He says that the mistake that people who believe that scientific central planning make is that they believe there is more of a consensus that there is. Someone's choices wind up overriding other's choices. There is more to it than this, but this is the basis of the argument. It is simple and not really one that falls easily on a liberal/conservative spectrum.

It is, however, probably the source of the claim that he is "conservative." Maggie Thatcher was a fan of Hayek as was, apparently, Ronald Reagan. It can be construed that the opposite of governments actively trying manage economies is lazie fare, hands off, anything goes conservativism. But that would be a misreading of Hayek and simply because a conservative likes Hayek's arguments about one topic does not make Hayek a conservative.

There is another point where Hayek would probably diverge widely from current "conservatives." By popular demand the borders in the US are getting tighter. For instance, it is now difficult to come back and forth from Canada, foreign graduate students are looking elsewhere, the "conservative" governor of California (himself an Austrian and alledgedly a fan of Hayek) is supporting vigilanties to prevent border crossings from Mexico. It does not seem that this is condusive to "knowledge" in the sense that Hayek uses it, as something that is distributed throughout humanity.

Hayek's greatest interest was in how we each take our little snapshot of the world and interact with others to build stable social structures without any direction. It is not that someone decides that we should have a structure like such and such, we find that these structures are there and we can all recognize them. In a way, he is talking about the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith. Somehow we coordinate activity so that I can be writing this right now on a computer I got somewhere, a DSL connection and so on and I have not talked to the people involved with making it happen, they have not talked to each other and no one directed them to do it.

Hayek is interested in the rules that make that happen. Now we talk of complex adaptive systems and the idea of "spontaneous order" is widely studied to day. Current work on "connectionist networks" now mention Hayek. He was way ahead of his time.

I also want to point out that even though some call him "the father of libertarianism" he was not against governments making rules that cause markets to function better, for instance, regulation against monopoly. Libertarians were up in arms against the threatened breakup of Microsoft, something Hayek would not have been against in principle.

I hope more people will read this book. It is remarkable how many ideas we think are brand new have been around for a while. This book helped me understand how they got sidelined. It is really a lively book, filled with people as well as ideas, which is important, because sometimes politics trumps insight. Hayek's remarkable ideas are just beginning to be widely noticed and recognizing what is happening is an exciting benefit of this book.

Amazing bio of an amazing thinker!.......2004-05-14

Tasked with the need to understand a contemporary, conservative thinker in a doctoral course on social justice, I was enriched by the professor's suggestion that I focus on Hayek. In due course I came upon this book by Caldwell. I wish to echo the earlier reviewers praise - this book is everything an intellectual history should be. The reader will become intimately familiar with the historical antecedents to Hayek, the academic, cultural, and historical milieu in which he worked, and the likely future his ideas will have.

I approached this book as a complete novice. I had never heard of Hayek, and frankly, reading this book stretched my 18 hours of undergraduate economics about as far as they could be stretched, but I was left with an astonishing respect for this economist turned political theorist. How is it possible that Hayek could have escaped my notice for 50 years?

One hundred and thirty pages are devoted, not to Hayek, but to Austrian school economics (i.e. - subjective value, marginalism, entrepreneurship) and its founder Carl Menger. Caldwell introduces key figures in the Austrian school at length (Bohm-Bawerk, Wieser, and Mises) as well as the chief protagonists of the school (German historical, socialism).

Into this fray comes Hayek, an ambitious but not a particularly aggressive academic. Any attempt at summarizing Hayek's thought is easily criticized, but from my personal perspective, Hayek seems to have been a master at synthesis. He linked what today would be called cognitive psychology with philosophy to produce an epistemology that is foundational to all his subsequent work. Further, he linked this epistemology with social evolution to explain social advance, social stability, and social institutions and values.

Epistemologically, Hayek understood human beings to possess a subjective ignorance. He denounced the "rational economic man" as a fiction, but asserted the importance of the free market supply/demand pricing mechanism. Without this pricing mechanism, economic planning was doomed to inefficiency and competitive disadvantage while the individual was cast adrift without any objective anchors with which to make decisions. Without the freedom to pursue subjective goals, however ignorant, there was no individual liberty.

It was from the random and chaotic subjectively ignorant decisions of the individual that social institutions evolved (i.e. - order out of chaos). The fittest of these social constructs prevail over time and form the framework of stability essential for the maintenance of a free marketplace and for the subjective projection of future value.

Hayek was awarded a Nobel Prize for economics in 1974 and the American Medal of Freedom in 1992 by then president George Bush, Sr. After spending a semester reading about this man and his ideas, I have become convinced that Hayek is a foundational thinker undergirding the conservative resurgence in America during the past 40 years. It is unlikely that there will ever be a finer intellectual biography than that provided by Caldwell. Everyone interested in social policy, social justice, and contemporary trends should become familiar with this book.

One last warning, Caldwell writes as an academic for academics. Footnotes abound, and there are four appendices directed at specialists. A lay reader will frequently realize that he cannot appreciate all of the subtle points that Caldwell is making. Despite these facts, this is a readable book worth the effort.

Caldwell, B. Hayek's Challenge.......2003-12-08

On the plane to and from the Southern Economic Association meetings in San Antonio (including a 3 hour delay in Dallas on the way home) in November I had the opportunity to read the best book written in Austrian economics in a generation -- Bruce Caldwell's Hayek's Challenge (University of Chicago Press, 2003). Caldwell, as to be expected, is a master historian of thought and constructs a narrative of Hayek's evolution of as a thinker that is simply better than any alternative account. And, in the process, Caldwell tells the story of the development of Austrian economics from Menger to today better than I have ever seen. This is a phenomenal work of scholarship and a beautifully written book. The book represents the history of economics as it should be written --- a subtle treatment of economic doctrine, contextualization of the evolution of argument within its broader history of philosophical, political and economic debates, and engagingly written. As far as economics goes, this book is a page turner. It is nothing short of a brilliant. Bruce Caldwell has written, in my opinion, the best book in economics for 2003.

The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason

Average customer rating:

Central work in social and political sciences
A fundamental piece of Hayek's substantial contributions
Shows the full depth of Hayek
A fascinating analysis of the beginning of Socialism

The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason
Friedrich August Von Hayek
Manufacturer: Liberty Fund
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Epistemology | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Methodology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0913966673

Customer Reviews:

Central work in social and political sciences.......2004-10-16

While none of Hayek's theses were new (except to those discovering his perspectives through his writings for the first time), they have become, due to his reputation and prolific writing, central to any education in the social and political sciences. The most important insight, in my opinion, offered by this work is the collectivist mentality at the heart of modern social "sciences," which attempt to analyze human behavior and its consequences (political and otherwise) in terms of defining collectives/groups -- where it is all-too-easy to make inaccurate or false (projected) assumptions about the nature of groups and behavioral characteristics being "analyzed." That is, "scientific" approaches can be, and have been, particularly in the social and political sciences, exploited to defeat reason/common sense by structuring inquiry along projected/desired lines that may bear little substantive relationship to underlying social and political phenomena.

A fundamental piece of Hayek's substantial contributions.......2002-01-07

Hayek was probably the greatest thinker of the 20th Century. He certainly out ranked the counterparts of his day - think about his debates with Keynes or his discussions of the conceits of socialism. Hayek had the integrity to thik carefully about a number of issues.

After WWII he began to think about a set of issues that would not be considered economics - but then Hayek was never bothered by the narrow comparmentalization that some academics operate in. His address to the London Economic Club and his discussions on Economics and Knowledge (knowledge of time and place) are legendary.

This book is a caution to social scientists. In the early fifties, Hayek cautioned his colleagues who were fast rushing to adopt "scientific" approaches to their disciplines - to move into that arena with caution. Numbers tend to become real on their own and are not always helpful in explaining issues or in helping to clarify thinking. His arguments, like the rest of his writing, are clear and well done. The book is a bit dense for some who have not the depth of his references - but it is well worth the effort.

Shows the full depth of Hayek.......2001-11-26

Too often, Hayek is not given enough credit. Too many people see him as merely a critic of socialism and defender of libertarianism (not that there's anything wrong with that). But Hayek was a brilliant social philosopher too and this book is Hayek at his best.

Unfortunately, this book begs to be misunderstood. I fear that people will read the second section before the first (if they read the first at all), and frankly, I could've done without the second.

At base, this book is not a critique on planning. It is a philosophical explanation of how we gain and use knowledge in the natural and social sciences. After Hayek lays out what he feels are mistakes in the methods of social science (psychologism, holism, scientism), he examines the mistakes thinkers have made that brought them to these -isms. Then and only then does he offer a critique of planning but ONE WILL NOT UNDERSTAND IN FULL THE SECOND SECTION WITHOUT HAVEING READ AND ABSORBED THE IDEAS IN THE FIRST! One may even want to read Popper's 'The Poverty of Historicism' before or with this book.
In closing, if you're looking for a critique on planning and socialism, read 'The Road To Serfdom' or 'Individualism and Economic Order', but if you want a great critique of science (social as well as natural) and it's current methods, read this one WITH CARE!

A fascinating analysis of the beginning of Socialism.......1998-12-05

In this dense book Hayek probes the origins of socialist thought. His account of the attempt to make history a mathematical science and the differences between subjective and objective thought is some of the most interesting and thought provoking discussion written this century.

It is a hard read but well worth the effort.

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