The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason

by Friedrich A. Hayek

Book Overview

Early in the last century the successes of science led a group of French thinkers to apply the principles of science to the study of society. These thinkers purported to have discovered the supposed... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0913966665
• ISBN13: 9780913966662
• Release Date: June 1980
• Publisher: Liberty Fund
• Length: 415 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.5" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 17 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Understanding the Limits of Reason

The Counter Revolution of Science is an important book for several reasons. First, The CRS explains the futility of schemes to plan progress, the impossibility of efforts for the "human mind to lift itself up by its own bootstraps". What this means is that "the attempt of conscious reason to control its own development limits the very growth to what the human mind can could foresee". Freedom "releases the knowledge and energies of countless individuals that could never be utilized in a society consciously directed from the top". Second, the CRS explains how the mindset of the physical sciences, which focuses on objective factors, fails when applied to economics. Understanding economics requires an appreciation of subjectivity in human relations. Engineers pursue technical excellence according to objective scientific principles, without considering economic factors (i.e. scarcity), and worse still the application of mathematical methods from the social sciences creates a false and dangerous impression that society can itself be engineered. Third, Hayek examines the history of the development of `scientistic' ideas, whereby various thinkers (especially St Simon and Comte) popularized positivism, socialism, and corporatism. Finally, reading the CRS instills an appreciation of the humility of individualism and disdain for the hubris of collectivism in the reader. Generally speaking, Hayek makes the importance of recognizing and respecting the limits of human reason abundantly clear. Hayek saw that modern collectivism was working to undo the intellectual progress made during the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment. Collectivism was antithetical to reason, and would lead us to a new Dark Age if not reversed. Persons of the left with surely find this absurd, and their revulsion to Hayek's thesis is consistent with his thesis. The Left does not reject reason explicitly, it abuses reason unwittingly. People on the Left truly believe that they are progressive and scientific, but this is a false belief. Socialists and Welfare State Liberals abuse human reason by failing to see its limits. The background to this book is simple. Hayek started his career writing technical economics. Hayek's efforts were initially met with success. Hayek initially swayed professional opinion on business cycles. Hayek also forced socialists to revise their early proposals. Yet professional opinion turned against Hayek during the mid thirties. Why? Had they proved him wrong? Did they fail to understand why he was right? How was it that intelligent and educated people could not see the strength of Hayek's arguments? Hayek's technical economics show how the capitalist system functions. Yet Hayek misunderstood the way in which his peers understood the term `technical economics'. That is, Hayek erred by underestimating the influence of positivist and other ideas. Hence Hayek turned to explaining why economists and other educated people were unable to understand correct economic

A Theoretical-Historical Inquiry into the Constructivism of the Social Sciences

This text is yet another testament to the extraordinary erudition of Dr. Hayek, and his ability to convey that methodological subjectivism (or individualism) is the foremost analytical technique for the several social sciences. What is discomfiting in this work is the historical support that most of our basic ideas are formed early in our academic careers, and only painfully revised in subsequent years. This is particularly troubling for many trained in the scientistic legacy of Saint-Simon, August Comte, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Hegel. Hopefully, the recrudescent interest in the "economic sociology" of Mises and Weber will free sociology from its scientistic tethers. But I am not confident about that. Hayek's long-lived philosophical commitment to methodological subjectivism is articulate, and is unmistakably clear in this work. And the Counterrevolution only restates the postulate that social scientists ought not to imitate their more highly paid colleagues in the "hard sciences." And this seems like eminently sound advice for sociologists, and particularly now that the flagship sociology journals are cluttered with, e.g., "religiousity scales," "mentoring scales," and other synechdichocal concepts that are amenable to various measurement scales. The price of this work is a steal. It must be known, however, that Hayek is an author who challenges readers. And this book is no different.

A fundamental piece of Hayek's substantial contributions

Hayek was probably the greatest thinker of the 20th Century. He certainly out ranked the counterparts of his day - think about his debates with Keynes or his discussions of the conceits of socialism. Hayek had the integrity to thik carefully about a number of issues.After WWII he began to think about a set of issues that would not be considered economics - but then Hayek was never bothered by the narrow comparmentalization that some academics operate in. His address to the London Economic Club and his discussions on Economics and Knowledge (knowledge of time and place) are legendary.This book is a caution to social scientists. In the early fifties, Hayek cautioned his colleagues who were fast rushing to adopt "scientific" approaches to their disciplines - to move into that arena with caution. Numbers tend to become real on their own and are not always helpful in explaining issues or in helping to clarify thinking. His arguments, like the rest of his writing, are clear and well done. The book is a bit dense for some who have not the depth of his references - but it is well worth the effort.

A fascinating analysis of the beginning of Socialism

In this dense book Hayek probes the origins of socialist thought. His account of the attempt to make history a mathematical science and the differences between subjective and objective thought is some of the most interesting and thought provoking discussion written this century. It is a hard read but well worth the effort.