El uso del conocimiento en la sociedad

La corriente economica principal adolece de dos grandes errores: transplanta los metodos de las ciencias puras en las que se puede obtener y controlar toda la informacion pertinente al estudio de los fenomenos sociales; reduce el analisis economico al formalismo matematico de la logica pura de la eleccion. Pero cuando se reconoce que el conocimiento esta disperso entre los diversos miembros de la sociedad y que cada persona posee fragmentos de conocimiento a los que solo ella tiene acceso en razon de sus circunstancias especificas de tiempo y lugar, el problema economico esencial es el de la coordinacion y utilizacion de los saberes individuales, es decir, de la transmision y uso de los conocimientos relevantes para tomar las decisiones economicas, que nunca estan al alcance de un individuo o una autoridad central.The major economic approach suffers from two serious errors: it transplants the methods of the pure sciences -in which all relevant information can be obtained and controlled- to the study of social phenomenal and it reduces economic analysis to the mathematical formalism of the pure logic of choice. But when it is recognized that knowledge is dispersed among diverse members of society and that each person possesses fragments of knowledge to which only that person has access due to his/her specific circumstances of time and place, the essential economic problem becomes that of the coordination and use of individual knowledges, that is, of the transmission and use of the relevant knowledges for making economic decisions, which are never within the reach of an individual or a central authority

O Cálculo Socialista I:: A Natureza e História do Problema

In this article, the author adresses, under a historical and analytical perspective, the main constitutive elements and the evolution of the discussions regarding the problem of the economic calculation in a socialist community. After a careful conceptual clarification, the author proceeds to present the main Austrian argument that rational economic calculation is possible only in a situation in which the price system, for all economics goods and factors of production, works in an environment of free competition.Neste artigo, o autor aborda, de maneira histórica e analítica, os principais elementos constitutivos e a evolução das discussões a respeito do problema do cálculo econômico em uma comunidade socialista. Após uma cuidadosa clarificação de conceitos, o autor procede à exposição do argumento austríaco central de que o cálculo econômico racional somente é possível em uma situação na qual o sistema de preços para todos os bens e fatores de produção funciona em ambiente de livre concorrência

Discurso no Banquete de Gala

Discurso de Friedrich August von Hayek no Banquete de Gala por ocasião da Entrega do Prêmio Nobel, em 10 de dezembro de 1974

INDIVIDUALISM: GENUINE AND FAKE

Temeljni je stav istinskoga individualizma stav poniznosti spram procesa kojima je čovječanstvo postiglo stvari koje nije projektirao ili shvatio ijedan pojedinac i koje su doista veće od individualnih pameti. Veliko je pitanje u ovome času hoće li čovjekovoj pameti biti dopušteno da nastavi rasti kao dio tih procesa ili će se ljudski um sam okovati lancima koje je sam i izradio. Individualizam nas uči da je društvo veće od pojedinca samo dok je slobodno. Kad je kontrolirano ili se njime upravlja, ono je ograničeno na moći individualnih pameti koje ga kontroliraju ili njime upravljaju. Ako preuzetnost modernoga duha, koja ne želi poštivati ništa što nije svjesno kontrolirano pojedinačnim umom, ne nauči na vrijeme gdje treba stati, Edmund Burke nas upozorava da možemo “biti sigurni kako će sve oko nas postupno nestajati, dok se napokon naša zanimanja ne stisnu do dimenzija naših mozgova.”The fundamental attitude of genuine individualism is humility towards the process by which humankind has achieved things not designed or comprehended by a single individual and which go beyond individual acumen. It remains to be seen whether human intelligence is to be allowed to grow as part of these processes or human reason is to confine itself with the chains of its own design. Individualism teaches us that the society is bigger than the individual only when free. When controlled or directed, it is limited to the powers of individual brains that control or direct it. If the presumptuousness of modern spirit that dismisses everything not consciously controlled by the individual mind is not checked in time, Edmund Burke cautions us that we may “be sure everything around us is to gradually disappear, until our interests eventually shrink to the dimensions of our brains.

Adam Smith and Ordoliberalism : On the Political Form of Market Liberty

In the context of the contemporary crisis of neoliberal political economy, the politics of austerity has reasserted the liberal utility of the state as the political authority of market freedom. This article argues that economy has no independent existence, and that instead, economy is a political practice. It examines the political economy of Adam Smith and the German ordoliberal tradition to decipher the character of the political in political economy and its transformation from Smith's liberal theory into neoliberal theology. Ordoliberalism emerged in the late 1920s at a time of a manifest crisis of political economy, and its argument was fundamental for the development of the neoliberal conception that free economy is matter of strong state authority. The conclusion argues with Marx that the state is the concentrated force of free economy