Abstract
AbstractHayek’s seminal contribution to theoretical neurosciences,The Sensory Order(1952) remains neglected in current efforts at integrating the neurosciences, psychology and economics. I defend the view that Hayek presents the case for an evolutionary alternative to leading paradigms in the field and look at two in more detail: the good-based model in neuroeconomics and the dual systems approach in behavioural economics. In both cases, essential Hayekian insights remain valid in the context of modern neuroscience, allow for taking account of recent research, and sketch a dynamic and selectionist model of choice.
Highlights
Hayek and the foundations of neuroeconomics Economics has been undergoing a profound disciplinary transformation in the recent decades
A significant part of this research is running under the label of ‘behavioural economics’, to which the field of neuroeconomics has been added, the relationship between the two is not yet settled: behavioural economics is mostly based on psychological theories and hypotheses, without necessarily aiming at further grounding in neuroscience; at the same time, neuroscience evidence for certain fundamental conceptual frames, such as the ‘dual systems’ view, is shaky
This paper explores philosophical foundations of neuroeconomics in introducing Hayek as a precursor who is so far neglected in positioning the new subdiscipline
Summary
Hayek begins by recognizing that there is a fundamental ontological gap between the brain and the world, or, what he calls ‘sensory order’ versus the ‘physical order’ (Hayek 1952: 4ff., 14). This broader perspective is reflected in his philosophical evaluation of the neuroscientific theory, which defines a difference from Edelman, and which we outlined previously in referring to the ‘explanatory gap’ Another important recent brain theory is Karl Friston’s thermodynamic approach that almost reads like a formalization of Hayek’s observation that the brain can only adapt to the world via the indirect processing of internal mappings and evaluations, subject to general evaluative benchmarks defined by organismic homeostasis. As Friston emphasizes, the brain constructs internal maps of the world which simultaneously generate perceptions qua hypotheses about those hidden states (all ‘sensory data’ are fallible hypotheses) and predictions about the effects of actions that are only being perceivable as changes in internal disequilibrium This is an evolutionary process of statistical optimization in a highly modularized structure which allows for comparison and mutual adjustment of perceptions across those various structures. The evolutionary alternative to paradigmatic models of choice in neuroeconomics and behavioural economics
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