Hayek’s Legacy

Abstract

Hayek considered that some of the distinctions he had chosen to make were of such importance as to warrant a special vocabulary. Since this vocabulary has not entered into common usage, a reiteration of the salient features of Hayek’s legacy is an opportunity to present a brief glossary of his preferred terminology. Praxeology is the science of human action, in which the a priori approach is adopted: the surest axioms are those discovered through introspection. This use of introspection is an important advantage the social sciences have over the physical sciences, and it contrasts with scientism which is the slavish and misguided imitation of the method and language of the physical sciences. The use of statistical aggregates to estimate parameters pertaining to market forces at work is bogus.

A doctrine that tells us more of the limitations on our ability to manage social affairs than of the possibilities of controlling the course of social and economic development is not likely to be popular in an age of scientism.

(Barry, 1979, p. 202)