F. A. Hayek

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxvii

   PDF

2. Clarifying Some Misconceptions About Hayek

   • Peter J. Boettke

   Pages 1-14

3. Hayek: An Overview of His Life and Work

   • Peter J. Boettke

   Pages 15-36

4. The Anatomy of an Economic Crisis: Money, Prices, and Economic Order

   • Peter J. Boettke

   Pages 37-76

5. Hayek on Market Theory and the Price System

   • Peter J. Boettke

   Pages 77-118

6. Hayek and Market Socialism

   • Peter J. Boettke

   Pages 119-139

7. The False Promise of Socialism and The Road to Serfdom

   • Peter J. Boettke

   Pages 141-157

8. A Genuine Institutional Economics

   • Peter J. Boettke

   Pages 159-195

9. The Political Economy of a Free People

   • Peter J. Boettke

   Pages 197-226

10. Hayek, Epistemics, Institutions, and Change

    • Peter J. Boettke

    Pages 227-256

11. The Reconstruction of the Liberal Project

    • Peter J. Boettke

    Pages 257-281

12. The Hayekian Legacy

    • Peter J. Boettke

    Pages 283-296

13. Back Matter

    Pages 297-323

    PDF

This book explores the life and work of Austrian-British economist, political economist, and social philosopher, Friedrich Hayek. Set within a context of the recent financial crisis, alongside the renewed interest in Hayek and the Hayek-Keynes debate, the book introduces the main themes of Hayek’s thought. These include the division of knowledge, the importance of rules, the problems with planning and economic management, and the role of constitutional constraints in enabling the emergence of unplanned order in the market by limiting the perverse incentives and distortions in information often associated with political discretion. Key to understanding Hayek's development as a thinker is his emphasis on the knowledge problem that economic decision makers face and how alternative institutional arrangements either hinder or assist them in overcoming that epistemic dilemma. Hayek saw order emerging from individual action and responsibility under the appropriate institutional order that itself emerges from actors discovering new and better ways to coordinate their behavior. This book will be of interest to all those keen to gain a deeper understanding of this great 20th century thinker in economics.

• Economic philosophy
• Social philosophy
• Friedrich Hayek
• Austrian Economics
• History of economic thought
• The Road to Serfdom
• The Constitution of Liberty
• The Pure Theory of Capital
• Institutional Economics
• Neoliberalism
• Institutional Economics
• Market Theory
• Market Socialism
• Hayekian Economics

“The book under review clearly demonstrates Hayek’s contributions to systems thinking in general and to modeling of complex phenomena of society in particular. … I wholeheartedly recommend this book.” (H. I. Kilov, Computing Reviews, July 13, 2020)

“He makes a substantial contribution to both Hayek scholarship and the literature on liberalism. Although lay readers might gain much from engaging with this book, its real audience is other scholars … . this book and Hayek’s ideas deserve the broadest audience possible.” (Steven G. Horwitz, The Independent Review, Vol. 24 (2), 2019)

“Boettke’s book will, I hope, induce more scholars to take Hayek seriously and to reexamine his contributions to economic science, political theory, and social philosophy. … F.A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy, andSocial Philosophy is essential reading for any scholar interested in the Hayekian tradition.” (Art Carden, AIER American Institute for Economic Research, aier.org, May 10, 2019)

“The book is highly recommended for academics concerned with technical economics as it is an invitation to talk about thinkers … . book is highly recommended not only for Hayek experts and academics interested in Hayek’s intellectual legacy, but also, and particularly, for economists engaged in technical economics. Boettke’s book advances Hayek’s epistemic institutionalism as an important constructive program, because it accentuates the relevance of institutions to the coordination of market participants, and thus to how institutions shape economic processes.” (Lachezar Grudev, Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, Vol. 12 (1), 2019)

“Impressive, wide-ranging, highly illuminating.” (@CassSunstein, Twitter, November 27, 2018)

“Boettke has beaten a path through several decades of intensive work by a great thinker to identify the most important and fruitful line of march for scholars and friends of liberal democracy.” (Quadrant, December, 2018)


“In this fine work of intellectual history, Boettke artfully sketches the historical context in which Hayek’s various ideas developed while demonstrating their analytical connection and broad coherence. … Boettke’s book is rich in its contextualization of Hayek’s ideas and its engagement with modern issues in social science and public policy. The application of Hayekian ideas spans from the 2008–2009 financial crisis, to political theories of democracy, to evolutionary psychology.” (Erik W. Matson, The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, kirkcenter.org, November, 2018)

“Boettke’s book will, I hope, induce more scholars to take Hayek seriously and to re-examine his contributions to economic science, political theory, and social philosophy. In his analysis of the phases of Hayek’s intellectual evolution, Boettke dispels a few myths and works (albeit implicitly) to rescue Hayek’s scientific program from the calumnies of his modern ideological critics. In Boettke’s hands, Hayek’s work is a beginning, not an end: it is the jumping-off point into a vital and dynamic research program on how economic coordination happens in a world rife with fallibility and ignorance.This book is essential reading for any scholar interested in the Hayekian tradition.” (Art Carden, Senior Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, Massachusetts, USA)

“An intellectual historian discussing an eminent figure in social theory must not only be sensitive to the subtle nuances of that theorist’s own contributions, he must be able to relate those nuances to the complex, shifting intellectual fashions against which that theorist was rebelling. Peter Boettke’s skillful treatment of Hayek’s intellectual journey brilliantly and provocatively succeeds in achieving this standard of excellence. This is a book that will be recognized as pathbreakingly important for many decades to come.”  (Israel M. Kirzner, New York University, USA )

“Among mid-twentieth century economists, only Hayek’s work enabled us to understand what I found truly astonishing. People in my market experiments quickly discovered the efficient equilibrium outcomes hidden in their dispersed knowledge of individual item values that I had assigned them privately. For Hayek, prices convey the coordinating information that incentivizes performance by harnessing dispersed knowledge like no other known system. Boettke brings this towering intellect into your own thinking. Hayek’s deep insights extend far beyond economics and into jurisprudence, social and political philosophy. Read Boettke’s Hayek and soar.”  (Vernon L. Smith, Nobel Laureate Chapman University, USA)


“Boettke advocates a humane and cosmopolitan liberalism as an antidote to the nationalist and populist enthusiasms so evident today on the left and the right. Hayek fought the same battles, of course, against similar foes. Boettke deftly brings Hayek’s main contributions in the areas of economics, political economy, and social philosophy into conversation with current concerns and recent writers. On the way he corrects some egregious misreadings. It is a fine achievement.” (Bruce Caldwell, Duke University, USA)

• Department of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

  Peter J. Boettke

Peter Boettke is University Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, at George Mason University, USA.

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