2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the Nobel Prize won by liberal political economist F.A. Hayek. This lecture will review some of Hayek’s key ideas and especially his contributions to the methodology of the social sciences. It will feature Bruce Caldwell, a leading historian of economic thought, author of a recently released book Hayek: A Life, 1899–1950.
The lecture will focus on Hayek’s time at LSE as well as his contributions on how best to pursue economic science.
In his famous Nobel speech, Hayek criticized the influence of scientism in the social sciences. He argued that the complexity of social phenomena cannot be captured through mechanistic models that attempt to predict human action with scientific precision. Caldwell will discuss Hayek's challenge to the scientific community to recognise the limits of what we can accomplish in the social sciences, particularly when one studies a complex adaptive system like the economy. He will show how Hayek came to hold the views he did, their reception, and their implications for how we study economics and think about social and economic policy.
Meet our speaker and chair
Bruce J. Caldwell is Research Professor of Economics at Duke. His research focuses on the history of economic thought, with a specific interest in the life and works of the Nobel Laureate economist and social theorist F. A. Hayek. He is the author of Hayek's Challenge: An Intellectual Biography of F. A. Hayek and since 2002 has served as the general editor of the book series The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek. In 2022 he published Mont Pelerin 1947: Transcripts of the Founding Meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society as well as Hayek: A Life, 1899-1950, the first of a two-volume biography that he is writing with Hansjoerg Klausinger. In 2019-2020 he was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Mary S. Morgan is Albert O. Hirschman Professor of History and Philosophy of Economics in the Department of Economic History at LSE.
More about this event
This event will be available to watch on LSE Live. LSE Live is the new home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can't attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE's YouTube channel.
Modern economic thinking needs to reaffirm and engage with sound Hayekian ideas in this age of global interconnectedness, when the world is coming to grips with multitude of challenges, including global pandemic, climate change, social inequities and inequalities, and politico-media complex. This can only be achieved through fostering dialogue among stakeholders, which include researchers, policymakers, experts, and key decision-makers. The Hayek Programme in Economics and Liberal Political Economy at LSE provides a space where this dialogue can happen. This programme aims to contribute to the research and public debate suited to the demands of 21st Century.
Hashtag for this event: #LSEEvents
Podcast & video
A podcast of this event is available to download from F A Hayek's Nobel at 50: then and now.
A video of this event is available to watch at F A Hayek's Nobel at 50: then and now.
Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.
Featured image (used in source code with watermark added): Photo by Vladimír Krupa 81 via Wikimedia Commons.