AUSTRIAN LIBERALISM AFTER FRIEDRICH A. HAYEK’S LAW, LEGISLATION, AND LIBERTY

Abstract

The purpose of the essay is to find an answer to the fact that, while dominating the intellectual scene of classical Liberalism for much of the 20th century, the Austrian School, since Friedrich A. von Hayek's Law, Legislation, and Liberty trilogy of 1973-79, has produced nothing equally systematic and innovative. At least from the perspective of political philosophy. More than two decades after the beginning of the new millennium, and despite the extraordinary changes that have taken place in every sphere of human life, one thus feels the lack of a work of political philosophy that at least asks (leaving to historians the reenactment of its glories and failures) whether the liberal tradition still has a meaning and function in a world so different from that known by its great exponents. And this naturally leads one to ask whether the general general theory of human action that the exponents of the Austrian School elaborated on the basis of the theory of subjective values retains its explanatory value in a constantly changing world.