Emergent properties in the work of Friedrich Hayek

Abstract

The term ‘emergence’ features only infrequently on the work of Friedrich Hayek, and then almost always merely as a synonym for ‘spontaneous order’. The argument of this paper is that Hayek's accounts both of the working of the human mind, and also of the spontaneous order of the market, rely heavily – if almost always implicitly – on the philosophical notion of emergence, that is on the idea that when certain elements or parts stand in particular relations to one another, the whole that is formed has properties that are not possessed by those elements or parts taken in isolation. The implications of Hayek's implicit commitment to the notion of emergence for the possibility of downward causation in social life are considered. The differences between ‘emergence’ and ‘spontaneous order’ are also highlighted.