Abstract
This article argues that Hayek's thought had a consistent epistemological core that he developed with the aim of undermining prevailing positivism and replacing it with a metaphysical and spiritualistic philosophy of science. This becomes clear when an intellectual-historical method is used to elucidate Hayek's psychological and methodological works. We see that the approaches and arguments he found most convincing were those of nineteenth-century neo-Kantianisms, Gestalt psychology, vitalism, phenomenology, and theological mathematician Georg Cantor. Hayek thought his spiritual science superior because it explained “the place where the human individual stands in the order of things,” thereby clarifying science's epistemic standpoint, but also its meaning. The article will be of interest to scholars of neoliberalism and contemporary politics because its reading of Hayek suggests that the allegiance between, and apparent attractiveness of, Hayekian and religious conservative thought may have something to do with their common claims to marry order, freedom, and purpose.
Highlights
He was somebody looking for an answer to the problem of religion and he had a continuous internal battle with the concept we call God
We see that the approaches and arguments he found most convincing were those of nineteenth-century neo-Kantianisms, Gestalt psychology, vitalism, phenomenology, and theological mathematician Georg Cantor
The article will be of interest to scholars of neoliberalism and contemporary politics because its reading of Hayek suggests that the allegiance between, and apparent attractiveness of, Hayekian and religious conservative thought may have something to do with their common claims to marry order, freedom, and purpose
Summary
Hayek’s most Popperian work to my mind is “Degrees of Explanation” (1955), likely a reference to Popper’s chapter “Degrees of Testability” in Logic of Scientific Discovery.119 Primarily employing a mathematical approach, “Degrees of Explanation” argued that the scientist must be metaphysical about complex phenomena considering “the existing state of observational technique.”120 From this, one sees why this paper has contributed to the inaccurate view that Hayek thought the three realms he was describing (less complex, mind, and more complex) were merely distinguished by degree of complexity, rather than by qualitative or ontological differences.
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