The Order of Catallaxy, Commutative Justice, the Minimal State and the Great Society

Abstract

The methodological formation of social spontaneity and cultural evolution has implications for Hayek’s theory of the moral market, justice, the state and society. In the preceding chapter it has been shown that the parallel which Hayek draws between his scientific and his moral argument is epistemologically based. Due to this parallel, the ideas of social spontaneity and cultural evolution are developed as two methodological and moral models. It has been argued that the particular dimension which those models advance morally excludes substantive politics because such politics cannot be explained in terms of the praxeological presuppositions of social spontaneity and cultural evolution. At the same time, this dimension requires substantive politics because only by means of it can social spontaneity and cultural evolution be politically preserved in terms of liberalism. The present chapter examines Hayek’s political theory in the light of this core argument. The examination begins with the moral exclusion of substantive politics and ends with the moral requirement of such politics. The reason for this is epistemological. In Hayek’s theory, the moral requirement of substantive politics can be understood through the moral exclusion of such politics and its theoretical implications.