Individualism
By FRIEDRICH A. HAYEK
Individualismand
Economic Order
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
LVMI
The Ludwig von Mises Institute is dedicated to advancing the Austrian School of economics and libertarian scholarship. Founded in 1982, the Institute defends individual liberty, the free market, private property, sound money, and peace. Its broad range of teaching programs, fellowships, publications, and conferences is supported by voluntary donations.
Copyright
The University of Chicago Press • Chicago 37 George Routledge & Sons • London • England
Copyright 1948 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved Published 1948. Third Impression 1958. Composed and printed by The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Digital edition by the Ludwig von Mises Institute 2013
eISBN: 978-1-61016-605-8
Preface
ALTHOUGH the essays collected in this volume may at first appear to be concerned with a great variety of topics, I hope that the reader will soon discover that most of them treat of closely connected problems. While they range from discussions of moral philosophy to the methods of the social sciences and from problems of economic policy to pure economic theory, these questions are treated in most of the essays as different aspects of the same central issue.
I. Individualism: True and False
Du dix-huitième siècle et de la révolution, comme d’une source commune, étaient sortis deux fleuves: le premier conduisait les hommes aux institutions libres, tandis que le second les menait au pouvoir absolu.
—Alexis de Tocqueville.
II. Economics and Knowledge
1
THE ambiguity of the title of this paper is not accidental. Its main subject is, of course, the role which assumptions and propositions about the knowledge possessed by the different members of society play in economic analysis.
III. The Facts of the Social Sciences
1
THERE exists today no commonly accepted term to describe the group of disciplines with which we shall be concerned in this paper.
IV. The Use of Knowledge in Society
1
WHAT is the problem we wish to solve when we try to construct a rational economic order? On certain familiar assumptions the answer is simple enough.
V. The Meaning of Competition
1
THERE are signs of increasing awareness among economists that what they have been discussing in recent years under the name of “competition” is not the same thing as what is thus called in ordinary language.
VI. “Free” Enterprise and Competitive Order
