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Friedrich A. Hayek:The Hayekian Prism (voir la source)
Version du 11 janvier 2009 à 10:15
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If Hayek was an epistemologist, a historian, and a political philosopher, he nevertheless always remained an economist; and Caldwell rightly calls attention to one of Hayek's final contributions to economic thought. In his 1981 talk, "The Flow of Goods and Services," Hayek renounced the notion of equilibrium. Equilibrium, Hayek maintained, was not a useful way to understand the market process; instead, Hayek suggested the metaphor, not altogether clear, of a stream. Caldwell sees the crucial point: | If Hayek was an epistemologist, a historian, and a political philosopher, he nevertheless always remained an economist; and Caldwell rightly calls attention to one of Hayek's final contributions to economic thought. In his 1981 talk, "The Flow of Goods and Services," Hayek renounced the notion of equilibrium. Equilibrium, Hayek maintained, was not a useful way to understand the market process; instead, Hayek suggested the metaphor, not altogether clear, of a stream. Caldwell sees the crucial point: | ||
{{quote|he rejected here even his own definition of equilibrium . . . as useful for understanding how the price system continually guides the formation of the capital stock. At a minimum, the paper suggests that, by the end of his life, Hayek's commitment to equilibrium theory as a metaphor for capturing the essence of the market process had reached its lowest point. (p. 227)}} | |||
How is one to explain so fundamental a change? Equilibrium had long been at the center of Hayek's thought, a fact that Joseph Salerno has taught us better than anyone else. Now, suddenly, it is abandoned. Caldwell is puzzled. (Incidentally, I cannot think that Caldwell has adequately confronted Salerno's fundamental work on Hayek and equilibrium. See his brief and inadequate remarks at p. 143, n.14.) | How is one to explain so fundamental a change? Equilibrium had long been at the center of Hayek's thought, a fact that Joseph Salerno has taught us better than anyone else. Now, suddenly, it is abandoned. Caldwell is puzzled. (Incidentally, I cannot think that Caldwell has adequately confronted Salerno's fundamental work on Hayek and equilibrium. See his brief and inadequate remarks at p. 143, n.14.) | ||
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I have so far been rather critical of Caldwell; but he deserves full credit for his ability to explain clearly difficult concepts. To me, the high point of the book is Caldwell's expert journey through the labyrinthine complexities of The Sensory Order. He succinctly explains, e.g., the key assumptions that underlie one of Hayek's major arguments in that work: | I have so far been rather critical of Caldwell; but he deserves full credit for his ability to explain clearly difficult concepts. To me, the high point of the book is Caldwell's expert journey through the labyrinthine complexities of The Sensory Order. He succinctly explains, e.g., the key assumptions that underlie one of Hayek's major arguments in that work: | ||
{{quote|One of the most important philosophical consequences of Hayek's psychological studies is the claim that it is impossible for the mind to explain itself. Hayek's argument hinged on the twin ideas that explanation is itself a sort of classification and that the explanation of a given classification system requires a classification system of greater complexity than the one being explained. (p. 344)}} | |||
Caldwell also deserves praise for realizing that Hayek's views deserve further development: Hayek is no mere past figure whose insights have been absorbed into a supposed neoclassical consensus. But here our praise must decidedly be mixed. Caldwell gives a radically incomplete and distorted account of those who are attempting to continue the Austrian economics that Hayek championed throughout his life. | Caldwell also deserves praise for realizing that Hayek's views deserve further development: Hayek is no mere past figure whose insights have been absorbed into a supposed neoclassical consensus. But here our praise must decidedly be mixed. Caldwell gives a radically incomplete and distorted account of those who are attempting to continue the Austrian economics that Hayek championed throughout his life. | ||