Studies on the Abuse and Decline of Reason: Text and Documents
F. A. Hayek and Bruce Caldwell
Abstract
This book presents a study of social phenomena. How to best and most accurately study social interactions has long been debated intensely, and there are two main approaches: the positivists, who ignore intent and belief and draw on methods based in the sciences; and the nonpositivists, who argue that opinions and ideas drive action and are central to understanding social behavior. The author's opposition to the positivists and their claims to scientific rigor and certainty in the study of human behavior is a running theme of the book, which argues that the vast number of elements whose interac ... More
This book presents a study of social phenomena. How to best and most accurately study social interactions has long been debated intensely, and there are two main approaches: the positivists, who ignore intent and belief and draw on methods based in the sciences; and the nonpositivists, who argue that opinions and ideas drive action and are central to understanding social behavior. The author's opposition to the positivists and their claims to scientific rigor and certainty in the study of human behavior is a running theme of the book, which argues that the vast number of elements whose interactions create social structures and institutions make it unlikely that social science can predict precise outcomes. Instead, it contends, we should strive to simply understand the principles by which phenomena are produced. For this text, this modesty of aspirations went hand in hand with the author's concern over widespread enthusiasm for economic planning. As a result, these chapters are relevant to ongoing debates within the social sciences, and to discussion about the role government can and should play in the economy.
Keywords:
social phenomena,
social interactions,
positivists,
social behavior,
human behavior,
economic planning
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2010 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780226321097 |
| Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: February 2013 |
DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226321127.001.0001 |
