Friedrich Hayek: A Biography

In the first full biography of Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992), Alan Ebenstein chronicles the life, works, and legacy of the visionary thinker, from his early years in fin-de-siècle Vienna to his remarkable career as a Nobel Prize winning economist, political philosopher, and leading public intellectual. Ebenstein gives a balanced, integrated account of Hayek's diverse body of work, from his first encounter with free market ideas to his magisterial writings in later life on the legal, political, ethical, and economic requirements of a free society.

Excerpts

“Hayek’s essential factual as distinct from moral proposition is that knowledge is divided among the minds of all humanity. It is impossible to gather this fragmented knowledge into one brain.

It is therefore counterproductive to build societies-as classical socialism attempted- on the belief that central government control of all economic management and business decisions can be more efficient than a decentralized economic order that is created through fluctuating prices, private property, profits, contract, and the ability to exchange goods and services, all of which build on, accommodate, and utilize fragmented and divided information. “

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“Now, he argued, it is not just that socialism is unproductive, it is that it is intrinsically unfree. Personal liberty cannot exist where an individual is but a piece in a planner's scheme.“

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“To assume that all knowledge can be verbally expressed at a point in time is false. Knowledge can exist although the words to express it have not been discovered yet. One of the errors of classical socialism was that it relied too much on verbal knowledge. “

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“The question of spontaneous order was among the most profound that Hayek explored. How is it possible for a peaceful, productive society to emerge in which no one gives orders? Hayek’s answer became the rule of law. Right law (orthonomos) creates – is– the social structure or framework in which mankind flourishes.”

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“Right law creates not the details but the boundaries of interpersonal interaction. “

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“Liberty, properly conceived, is not the absence of law but its supremacy. “

Dr. Ebenstein teaches economic history and the history of economic thought at the University of California, Santa Barbara.