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C. S. Peirce and F. A. Hayek on the Abstract Nature of Sensation and Cognition

Here is the intro to Jim Wibble’s fascinating paper, the full version available here. When exploring ideas on philosophy of science and economic methodology, one of the most unusual articles that one can encounter is Hayek’s well-known piece, “The Primacy of the Abstract”. In a note in the article, Hayek tells us that he had…

Hayek’s Self-organizing Mental Order and Folk-Psychological Theories of the Mind

Here is the Introduction to Chiara Chelini’s paper, the full version available here. Humans are social creatures and they deeply rely on mentalizing, which aims at understanding other people behaviours and formulating expectations about their future actions. The existence of inner mental states has been postulated in order to give an explanatory account of the…

Fuster’s “Prólogo” to Hayek’s El Orden Sensorial

Here is a translation I commissioned by José Villavicencio of Joaquin Fuster’s “Prólogo” to F. Hayek El Orden Sensorial. Unión Editorial, S.A., Madrid, pp 11-23, 2004. +++++++++++++++++++ Prologue Salzburg, May 17, 1976 Dear Professor Fuster, Thank you very much for your kind letter dated the 3rd of this month and that I have in my possession without…

Hayek, Popper, and the Causal Theory of the Mind

Here is the introduction to Ed Feser’s paper from Hayek in Mind. In late 1952, F. A. Hayek sent his friend Karl Popper a copy of his recently published book The Sensory Order: An Inquiry into the Foundations of Theoretical Psychology. In a letter dated December 2, 1952, Popper acknowledged receipt of the book and…

Hayek’s Speculative Psychology, The Neuroscience of value Estimation, and the Basis of Normative Individualism

Here’s the opening paragraph of Don Ross’ paper from Hayek in Mind: Hayek’s Philosophical Psychology. Philosophers of mind who re-visit Friedrich Hayek’s The Sensory Order almost sixty years after its publication should feel humbled, perhaps sheepish, on behalf of their discipline. The book is essentially an exercise in abstract speculative mental architecture construction, the kind of…

Hayek in Today’s Cognitive Neuroscience

Check out Joaquín Fuster’s recent paper: Only now, more than half a century after the publication of his theoretical book (Hayek, 1952), is the reaction to Hayek’s argument beginning to be heard. And it’s a positive reaction, now supported by facts. He used to say that without a theory the facts are silent. Now, belatedly reacting to…

Views of Hayek, Hebb, and Heisenberg: Toward an Approach to Brain Functioning

Neuroscientist Erol Basar on Hayek F. A. Hayek’s The Sensory Order must rate as one of the most creative books written on general philosophy of neuroscience. Although Hayek was a Noble-prize winner in economics and was not educated as a neuroscientist, his book opens up a new window on neuroscience, and this window certainly offers…

Remembering Herbert Simon

Simon died this day in 2001. Check out these two books – Models of a Man (as with most edited books this is uneven, but there is still much to recommend it) and Herbert A. Simon: The Bounds of Reason in Modern America, an excellent intellectual biography. Speaking of Simon, I have a paper coming out entitled…

Hayek in Mind: Hayek’s Philosophical Psychology

The book was published today. Here is the publisher’s webpage and the Amazon page. CognitionCognitive sciencecomplexityFriedrich HayekHayekhebbphilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mindPsychology