|
Hayek’s evolutionary road to freedom: complex phenomena and economic prediction| old_uid | 7794 |
|---|
| title | Hayek’s evolutionary road to freedom: complex phenomena and economic prediction |
|---|
| start_date | 2009/12/09 |
|---|
| schedule | 17h30 |
|---|
| online | no |
|---|
| summary | Friedrich A. von Hayek is mainly known for his defence of free market economics. His views on science, and more specifically on the methodological differences between the physical sciences on the one hand, and evolutionary biology and the social sciences on the other, are less well known. Yet Hayek’s defence of the free market relied on these last. He believed that basic misunderstanding of the discipline of economics and the complex phenomena with which it deals produced misconceptions concerning its method and goals, which led in turn to the adoption of dangerous policies. The objective of my talk will be to analyse Hayek’s views on the nature of economics as a scientific discipline akin to evolutionary biology. I will show how his understanding of the data and goal of the social sciences culminated in an analogy that sought to establish economics and evolutionary biology as exemplary complex phenomena sciences. I will also challenge Hayek’s interpretation of this analogy through a comparison with Darwin’s claims, thus opening the door to re-evaluating the contributions of this foremost 20th century thinker. |
|---|
| responsibles | Cozic, Huneman |
|---|
| |
|