F. A. Hayek on Social Evolution and the Origins of Tradition

[seemysig]

Dawkins and memes start at 46:12.

[HaploidCell]

I liked this old man and his way of argument.

The only thing that disturbes me is that these "old group selected moralities" are removed from any intellectual grounds.

If we "cannot contemplate them intellectually" we have no chance to reason against them.

Simply to say "cannot - not even in retrospective - be discovered by reason" just seems to be a cheap ploy to protect your argument.

It is putting up a thesis based on 'I said so" and telling you "logic won't work against it".

Am I wrong?

[hrvad]

@HaploidCell Well, in practice that's how it often works, especially by conservatives and religious people. I think that one of the reason we can't contemplate them is that they go unnoticed, and it doesn't help that some have put certain traditional practices on a pedestal. One noticed, however, many traditions are possible to analyze and the effects can be predicted - and at that time we can ask critical questions such as "is racism good for us" or "maybe we should let women vote"

[hayekian]

Hayek was way ahead of his time, and ours, although I think we are finally catching up. It was great to see Dawkins was brought up and that Hayek was well aware of the latest ideas from the evolutionary psychology camp. Authors like Matt Ridley and his great new book "The Rational Optimist" are beginning to finally grasp Hayek in all his dimensions. Hayek wasn't just an economist, he was much more than that, he tried to show how the entire world work using an evolutionary approach.

[Myndir]

@hayekian Yep. For so long, social Darwinists followed an incorrect view of social evolution, where individuals and groups were competing in a zero-sum struggle for survival. Hayek, on the other hand, understood that the market creates societies where people with conflicting interests can co-operate and develop together.

Daniel Dennett, while no libertarian, said to me that Hayek's philosophy of mind was first-rate.

[stealthswimmer]

@hayekian

I've been thinking of that recently. Basically like looking at things through the lens of evolution since the market is an evolutionary process. I think people in libertarian and non-libertarian camps often think of things from the point of view "hey, that's not a free market so the same principles don't apply" without any reasoning on *how* it's different often don't see that economics shows us the principles of action. Humans *always* seek to optimize their situation.

[Malthus0]

Friedrich Hayek speaking on Nov. 22, 1983 at George Mason University.