68 | F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom: Competition, Individualism, and the Politics of Reaction

In this episode, we discuss the ideas of economist and political philosopher F.A. Hayek as they appear in his 1944 book The Road to Serfdom. This influential book was written in response to what Hayek saw as the trend towards socialism in the mid-twentieth century and it offers his defense of “classical liberalism.” We examine the political and epistemological premises of Hayek’s theory of liberty and free markets, question his assumptions on human nature and cooperation, and near the end critique his odious conflation of communism and fascism. Say what you will about Hayek: at least he saved us from being subordinated and unfree! ...Right?

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References:

F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, edited by Bruce Caldwell (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007).

F.A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty, edited by Ronald Hamowy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011).

Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2018).

Music:

Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com