Scientific counter-revolution

Author: Friedrich A. Hayek
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2003-02-01
Features: American Edition (1952)
Preface: The articles collected in this book were originally published in different years but were part of a unified plan. For this republication, slight revisions were made to the content to address several flaws, though the main arguments remain unchanged. The order of the articles is now more systematic, aligning with the development of the arguments, rather than being arbitrary as when they were first published. Therefore, the book begins with theoretical discussions on general issues, followed by an examination of the historical role of related concepts. This is not intended to display scholarly prowess or merely to avoid unnecessary repetition, as I believe it is crucial for demonstrating the true significance of that particular development. However, I am also very aware that this results in the first few chapters being more difficult to understand than the rest of the content; it might have been more appropriate to place the more specific discussions first. Nevertheless, I still believe that most readers interested in this topic will find the current order more suitable. For those who have little interest in abstract discussions, they may start with the second part of the book, which bears the title of this volume. I hope they will then find that the general discussion in this part is more meaningful. The two main parts of this book were originally published separately in the Economica journal between 1942–1944 and 1941. The third study is a later-written speech manuscript, first published in the June 1951 issue of The Scale, and was also compiled from notes prepared for the first two papers. The editors of these journals, as well as the London School of Economics and Political Science, and their respected publishers, Henry Regnery Company in Chicago, permitted me to reprint the articles originally published under their sponsorship, and I must express my gratitude to them. F.A. Hayek
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the rapid development of natural sciences profoundly transformed the social world and social consciousness. In France, a group of thinkers, represented by Saint-Simon and Comte, attempted to apply the laws of natural sciences to the study of human society. They were dedicated to discovering the "laws" of society and hoped to perfect human social life through the direct control and application of these laws by the elite of the social sciences. This misuse of reason profoundly influenced the historical of the following two centuries, and in this book, Hayek delivers a strong critique of it.