Knowledge, values, and the social order in Hayek's oeuvre

Abstract

The epistemological basis of Hayek's moral and political philosophy is outlined. The Vienna of Austrian Economics, of Logical Empiricism, and its main critic Popper, form the background. Popper's methodology of research has been generalized to Evolutionary Epistemology. The concept of spontaneous order is central to Hayek's theory of cultural evolution. Attention is drawn to parallels with synergetics—how order emerges out of chaos. Property breeds order, but not the other way round. The market is logically and, hence, historically prior to any proto-state authority. Hayek's key questions are: How to use knowledge?, and How to elicit it? Existing dispersed (local) knowledge constitutes an epistemic resource, a sort of wealth. Knowledge is elicited in the market process, be it a commercial market or the “market of ideas.” The competitive market functions as a discovery and selection mechanism. The only viable way of co-locating relevant knowledge and decision rights is vesting decision responsibility in the owners of knowledge through the free, private market. The so-called “socialist calculation debate” is a spin-off of this insight. In the evolution of humankind, two rule systems have evolved: the moral system that stabilizes the face-to-face group and the system of abstract rules that makes possible social life in the large, anonymous society. Hayek's philosophy of the free society is based upon these theories, including his descriptive ethics. Apparently, in the long run, a free society cannot survive without a deontic moral system. This article argues that Hayek's philosophy is completed and enriched by Jasay's seminal work.