The Counter-Revolution of Science by F. A. Hayek, 1964, 1st SC ed., reading copy

Description: There is some sunning on spine cover and a name and school previous/original owner taught at on first page. There is intense underlining the first 40 pages or so, then only occasionally. Pages are still fairly white and still bound well. Nice cover with some light wear. Comes from a private collection.Reading copy onlyPlease email with any questions. The problem that Hayek deals with reaches to the core of how economists think about their discipline. There was once such a thing as the human sciences of which economics was part. The goal was to discover and elucidate the exact laws that govern the interaction of people with the material world. It had its own methods and own recommendations. Then something changed. Science became entirely positivistic in its orientation. Economics was changed from a human science into a poor cousin of the natural sciences that applied positivist methods, and to no great end, for human beings do not move about like molecules but rather engage in choices and unpredictable actions. What Hayek does in this treatise is link the change in methodology to a change in politics. The economy and people began to be regarded as a collective entity to be examined as if whole societies should be studied as we study planets or other non-volitional beings. It then began to make mistakes, treating facts as theories and theories as contingent. And thus is the state invited in to treat society as a laboratory. This re-definition of what constitutes science thus had a terrible and even deadly result for human well being and liberty. Science had turned from being a friend of freedom into being employed as its enemy.

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Location: Fort Worth, Texas

End Time: 2024-08-22T15:33:41.000Z

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