IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-05414504.html

The analogies between economic competition and natural selection in free-market thinking
[Les analogies entre concurrence économique et sélection naturelle dans les pensées libérales]

Author

Listed:
  • Philippe Légé

    (IDHES - Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l'Économie et de la Société - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - UP8 - Université Paris 8 - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - ENS Paris Saclay - Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, ISST - Institut des Sciences Sociales du Travail - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to explain how the evolutionary philosophies of Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) and Friedrich A. Hayek (1899–1992) justify economic competition. By studying the analogies between biology and society, as well as Hayek's use of the concept of "selection", we will show that his thinking contains echoes of Spencer's "social Darwinism". This will lead us to question the plight of the losers in the "market order" under Hayekian liberalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Philippe Légé, 2025. "The analogies between economic competition and natural selection in free-market thinking [Les analogies entre concurrence économique et sélection naturelle dans les pensées libérales]," Post-Print hal-05414504, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05414504
    DOI: 10.52983/CMJJ8712
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05414504v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-05414504v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.52983/CMJJ8712?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:hal:journl:hal-05414504. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.