Spontaneous order and social norms. Hayek’s theory of socio-cultural evolution

Péter Gedeon ()
Additional contact information
Péter Gedeon: Corvinus University of Budapest, Department of Comparative Economics, Budapest, Hungary

Society and Economy, 2015, vol. 37, issue 1, 1-29

Abstract: Hayek’s theory of socio-cultural evolution is a generalization of his theory on spontaneous market order. Hayek explains both the emergence of market and social institutions serving as a social basis for that order within the framework of a unified evolutionary logic. This logic interprets the emergence and survival of spontaneous order and group-level rules of conduct as an unintended consequence of human action. In order to explain the emergence of social norms exclusively on the basis of methodological individualism, one would have to give up an exclusively evolutionary explanation of these norms. Since Hayek applies the invisible-hand explanation to the investigation of social norms, he combines the position of methodological individualism with functionalist-evolutionary arguments in his analysis. Hayek’s theory of socio-cultural evolution represents a theory in the framework of which methodological individualism and functionalism do not crowd out but complement each other.

Keywords: socio-cultural evolution; invisible-hand explanations; spontaneous market order; social norms; methodological individualism; functionalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 B25 B52 B53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: I am grateful to Noémi Péter for her comments on a previous draft of this paper.
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://akademiai.com/content/rp55848026023314/fulltext.pdf (application/pdf)
subscription

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aka:soceco:v:37:y:2015:i:1:p:1-29

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Akadémiai Kiadó Zrt., P. O. Box 245, H-1519 Budapest, Hungary
https://akjournals.com/

Access Statistics for this article

Society and Economy is currently edited by Szent-Iványi, Balázs

More articles in Society and Economy from Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kriston, Orsolya ().