IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wea/econth/v4y2015i2p32.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Hayekian Explanation of Hayek's 'Epistemic Turn'

Author

Listed:
  • Scott Scheall

    (Department of Science, Technology, and Society, Arizona State University, USA)

Abstract

The present essay aims to account for F.A. Hayek's oft-noted 'turn' away from technical economics to concerns of a more philosophical nature. In particular, the paper seeks an explanatory principle that reconciles various elements of both continuity and discontinuity in Hayek's intellectual development, especially with respect to the evolution of his arguments concerning economic fluctuations. The essay uncovers such an explanatory principle in Hayek's own methodology of sciences of complex phenomena. According to this principle, an inquirer who confronts phenomena too complex for adequate explanation on the basis of current knowledge must move to a more general, albeit less testable, explanation. This is precisely what occurred in the evolution of Hayek's thought concerning trade cycles. The concluding section considers the implications of the argument for the extensive secondary literature on Hayek's 'transformation'.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott Scheall, 2015. "A Hayekian Explanation of Hayek's 'Epistemic Turn'," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 4(2), pages 1-32, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wea:econth:v:4:y:2015:i:2:p:32
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://et.worldeconomicsassociation.org/papers/a-hayekian-explanation-of-hayeks-epistemic-turn/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://et.worldeconomicsassociation.org/files/WEA-ET-4-2-Scheall.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hayek, F. A., 2014. "The Market and Other Orders," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226089553 edited by Caldwell, Bruce, September.
    2. Hayek, F. A. & Caldwell, Bruce, 2007. "The Pure Theory of Capital," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226320991 edited by White, Lawrence H., September.
    3. Dekker,Erwin, 2019. "The Viennese Students of Civilization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107565661, January.
    4. Boettke, Peter, 2015. "The Methodology Of Austrian Economics As A Sophisticated, Rather Than Naive, Philosophy Of Economics," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 79-85, March.
    5. Bruce J. Caldwell, 1988. "Hayek's Transformation," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 20(4), pages 513-541, Winter.
    6. Ulrich Witt, 1997. "The Hayekian Puzzle: Spontaneous Order and the Business Cycle," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 44(1), pages 44-58, February.
    7. Bruce Caldwell, 2009. "A skirmish in the Popper Wars: Hutchison versus Caldwell on Hayek, Popper, Mises, and methodology," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 315-324.
    8. Hayek, F. A., . "Money, Capital, and Fluctuations," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226321271 edited by McCloughry, R. K., September.
    9. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226320625 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Birner, J., 1995. "The surprising place of cognitive psychology in the work of F.A. Hayek," Research Memorandum 019, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    11. F. A. v. Hayek, 1936. "The Mythology of Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 50(2), pages 199-228.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin Komrska & Marek Hudík, 2016. "Hayek’s monetary theory and policy: A note on alleged inconsistency," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 85-92, March.
    2. Denis O’Brien, 2014. "Hayek in the history of economic thought," Chapters, in: Roger W. Garrison & Norman Barry (ed.), Elgar Companion to Hayekian Economics, chapter 2, pages 11-46, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Richard Arena & Lauren Larrouy, 2015. "The Role of Psychology in Austrian Economics and Game Theory: Subjectivity and Coordination," GREDEG Working Papers 2015-15, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    4. Scott Scheall, 2017. "What is extreme about Mises’s extreme apriorism?," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 226-249, July.
    5. Martin Komrska & Marek Hudík, 2014. "Were Hayek?s Monetary Policy Recommendations Inconsistent?," Proceedings of Economics and Finance Conferences 0402133, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    6. Agnès Festré & Pierre Garrouste, 2016. "Hayek on Expectations: The Interplay between two Complex Systems," GREDEG Working Papers 2016-13, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    7. Richard Arena & Agnès Festré, 2004. "Some specific Austrian insights on markets and the "new economy"," Post-Print halshs-00271371, HAL.
    8. James Caton, 2020. "The evolution of Hayek's thought on gold and monetary standards," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(1), pages 386-405, July.
    9. Kolev, Stefan, 2021. "When liberty presupposes order: F. A. Hayek's learning ordoliberalism," Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 21/2, Walter Eucken Institut e.V..
    10. Paul Lewis, 2014. "Hayek: from economics as equilibrium analysis to economics as social theory," Chapters, in: Roger W. Garrison & Norman Barry (ed.), Elgar Companion to Hayekian Economics, chapter 9, pages 195-223, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Paul Lewis & Richard E. Wagner, 2017. "New Austrian macro theory: A call for inquiry," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 30(1), pages 1-18, March.
    12. William R. Morgan, 2023. "Finance Must Be Defended: Cybernetics, Neoliberalism and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-21, February.
    13. Roger W. Garrison, 2014. "Hayek and Friedman," Chapters, in: Roger W. Garrison & Norman Barry (ed.), Elgar Companion to Hayekian Economics, chapter 6, pages 116-137, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Sunstein, Cass R., 2016. "Fifty Shades of Manipulation," Journal of Marketing Behavior, now publishers, vol. 1(3-4), pages 213-244, February.
    15. Scott Scheall, 2016. "A brief note concerning Hayek’s non-standard conception of knowledge," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 205-210, June.
    16. Malte Tobias Kähler, 2011. "From German Rules to European Discretion: Policy’s Slippery Slope," Chapters, in: David Howden (ed.), Institutions in Crisis, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Agnès Festré, 2002. "Money, Banking and Dynamics: Schumpeter vs. Hayek," Post-Print halshs-00271359, HAL.
    18. Agnès Festré & Pierre Garrouste, 2009. "The economic analysis of social norms: A reappraisal of Hayek’s legacy," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 22(3), pages 259-279, September.
    19. de Soto Jesus Huerta, 1998. "The Ongoing Methodenstreit of The Austrian School," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-40, March.
    20. Tito Belchior Silva Moreira & Benjamin Miranda Tabak & Mario Jorge Mendonça & Adolfo Sachsida, 2016. "An Evaluation of the Non-Neutrality of Money," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-20, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wea:econth:v:4:y:2015:i:2:p:32. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jake McMurchie (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/worecea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.