From the Journal of Libertarian Studies.
Abstract:
Friedrich Hayek developed a novel evolutionary theory of institutions and society in his last decades of life that was at odds with the prevailing theories in the twentieth century but that—in the light of new empirical evidence and theoretical models from evolutionary biology, psychology, and anthropology—can be considered now almost prophetic. In this article, I first briefly outline Hayek’s main ideas to confront them with recent evidence, distinguishing between three different but related branches: new evidence from happiness studies on positional externalities and Robert Frank’s criticism in The Darwin Economy; behavioral economics findings on human altruism and the possibility of crowding-out effects of economic incentives for intrinsic (prosocial) motivation reviewed by Samuel Bowles in The Moral Economy; and the development of a new cultural group selection theory, with David Sloan Wilson in books like This View of Life as its most fervent proponent. After confirming the adequacy of Hayek’s ideas to the emergent new science of social behavior, I warn about the need to address some science-based ethical consequences and policy implications that are being proposed and partially contradict Hayek’s own libertarian ideas.
