Humility's Challenge: The Political Value of Disperse Individual Experience in F. A. Hayek's Thought

Daniel Fernando Zarama Rojas ()

No 19127, Documentos CEDE from Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE

Abstract: The meaning of Hayek’s call for humility changed after the introduction of evolutionism into his thought. Initially, his call pretended to highlight the greater capacity of spontaneous orders to combine disperse knowledge of local circumstances. His account, however, was not able to fully argue why would such knowledge be socially valuable, why could only spontaneous orders combine it, and how could it be relevant for the political institutions of society. Then, through the introduction of evolutionism, widening his conception of knowledge, he renewed his account of social phenomena and became able to answer criticisms that could be associated with his previous works. Ever since, Hayek calls for humility points out at the potentialities of individual learning and innovation. I argue that reinterpreting Hayek’s call for humility in the light of his evolutionism allows for a clear understanding of the value of freedom and the role he assigns to the state.

Keywords: Hayek; Knowledge; Development; Humility; Institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B25 O17 O43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41
Date: 2021-03-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-hpe
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000089:019127

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