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A Danse Macabre of Wants and Satisfactions: Hayek, Oakeshott, Liberty, and Cognition

Just published in Austrian Economic Perspectives on Individualism and Society: Moving Beyond Methodological Individualism Austrian EconomicsAustrian SchoolBehavioral economicscomplexityconsumerismcorey abeldistributed cognitionEconomicsguinevere liberty nellHayekIndividualismindividualityLiberalismLibertarianismLibertyMichael Oakeshottsituated cognitionsocial epistemologysocial ontologysocial realitySpontaneous orderWalker Percy

Political Diversity Will Improve Social Psychological Science

Here’s an interesting paper co-authored by Jonathan Haidt. Also, here is a good accompanying article in The New Yorker. The problem though with all the discussion is that the terms “conservative” and “liberal” and their supposed practical politics correlates “Republican” and “Democrat” are meaningless. When push comes to shove, self-ascribed or pejorative usage of these terms,…

Nozick’s last interview?

Julian Sanchez interviews the great man. And in the spring, I’m giving a course jointly with a professor in the Slavic Languages department on Dostoyevsky and his philosophical ideas, and the difference that is made when philosophical ideas are presented in works of fiction rather than in discursive prose. It’s the difference between people who…

Ignatieff speaks with Isaiah Berlin

Listening to this interview one must surely reevaluate one’s impression of Berlin (I did view this program back in the day but it left me unmoved). Was Oakeshott being scathing (as is often assumed) in describing Berlin as “a Paganini of ideas” (though Oakeshott had a deeply acerbic and brutally cutting streak to him, I’m…

Hayek in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

It’s about time that Hayek had a dedicated entry in the SEP. I’ve been “lobbying” for FAH’s inclusion for some time now. Here is the stated brief of the article: This essay concentrates on this enduring theme [spontaneous order] of Hayek’s work, and a question: why would the scholar who did more than anyone in the…

Erasing the Invisible Hand

I’m just about finished reading this unrelenting and fine-grained assault on the concept of the invisible hand. This is one of the most remarkable pieces of scholarship I’ve read in many years whatever its flaws. Samuel is terrier-like with a rag doll! No doubt this book is going to upset many ideologues – and so…