Twentieth century philosopher and economist. Hayek took the view that since knowledge is limited and reason constrained, complex societies are not subject to prediction. In particular, attempting to predict social behaviour in advance of the individual decision is invalid since the the predicting agency may skew the results. This formed the backbone of Hayek's critique of communism. As a consequence of this epistemology Hayek defended conservatism, as against rationalistic reformers, and of the FreeMarket, as against command economics. Conversely, he refused to describe himself as a conservative, since he regarded social change as an inevitable corollary of economic advancement, and understood that conservatives are often prone to attempt to retard such changes.
See other PhilosophersAndBrigands. See also: KarlPopper, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Austrian Economics, TheFatalConceit