Friedrich the Great (Friedrich Hayek Recognized)

Bostonglobe.com ^ | 1/11/04 | By Virginia Postrel,

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Dismissed by critics as a free-market extremist, economist Friedrich Hayek is gaining new attention as a forerunner of cognitive psychology, information theory, even postmodernism. A reintroduction to one of the most important thinkers you've barely heard of.

AT A RECENT think-tank luncheon in Raleigh, economist Bruce J. Caldwell chatted with a local lawyer active in Democratic party circles. The man asked Caldwell what his new book was about. "It's an intellectual biography of Friedrich Hayek," replied Caldwell, a professor at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He got a blank look. "He was an economist. A libertarian economist."

What an understatement.

Hayek, who died in 1992, was not just any economist. He won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1974. His 1945 article, "The Use of Knowledge in Society," is a touchstone work on the role of prices in coordinating dispersed information. His 1944 bestseller "The Road to Serfdom" helped catalyze the free-market political movement in the United States and continues to sell thousands of copies a year.

Economist Milton Friedman calls him "the most important social thinker of the 20th century." Hayek's most significant contribution, he explains, "was to make clear how our present complex social structure is not the result of the intended actions of individuals but of the unintended consequences of individual interactions over a long period of time, the product of social evolution, not of deliberate planning."

[shrinkermd]

FYI. Sorry I could not post entire article.

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[Molly Pitcher]

Friedrich "The Great" Hayek. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he received the recognition TODAY he's due??

[B.Bumbleberry]

Yes, Molly. Hayek is near the top of my list of great thinkers. His writings are deep and precisely worded, and his logic so well crafted. Not to mention that he's right. Time and history have vanquished his opponents. He not only countered Russian communism and the post-depression ideas of Keynes against the herd, he expressed in graphic terms why they were wrong and would be damaging failures. The world would be a better place if his ideas gained ascendancy.

[beckett]

Pinker defending Hayek. A good sign that, despite appearances on many campuses, the competition of ideas continues to swing our way.

[The Raven]

Hayek is great

[Tauzero]

bttt

[perfect stranger]

Any relation?

Selma Hayek