Economics, Science, and Politics (Collected Essays of F. A. Hayek)

Author: (British) Hayek, translated by Feng Keli
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-11-01
Features: Hayek's economic and socio-political views are often misunderstood and distorted by politicians. However, his predictions on the inevitable consequences of planned economies and totalitarianism, his portrayal of free-market economies and open democratic societies, and his discussions on the essence of human freedom have awakened intellectual thought and established his status as a great economist and a representative figure of the contemporary neoliberal movement. The collection Economics, Science, and Politics includes more than 40 essays and speeches written by Hayek between the 1950s and 1970s, excluding his earlier works. Some renowned pieces, such as Competition as a Discovery Process, The Pretense of Knowledge, The Doctor Mandeville, The Theory of Complex Phenomena, and The Error of Constructivism, are included in this volume. The advantages of these articles are twofold: first, in terms of temporal span, they were written during a period of great intellectual activity in Hayek's life, allowing us to clearly trace his development from a professional economist to a multidisciplinary thinker. Second, compared to large-scale monographs, many of these articles are more accessible, offering readers a more convenient way to understand Hayek's ideas without the patience to digest The Constitution of Liberty or Law, Legislation, and Liberty. The book covers topics such as the spread of economic liberalism, economics, science, and politics; full employment, planning, and inflation; trade unions, inflation, and profits; inflation caused by rising wage rigidity; and the moral factors of the free enterprise system.