IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jecmet/v4y1997i2p267-287.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Searching for a methodological synthesis -Hayek's individualism in the light of recent holistic criticism

Author

Listed:
  • Juergen Lange-von Kulessa

Abstract

This paper compares different strategies of analysing economic phe-nomena, namely individualism and holism. As it turns out, a main point for which methodological individualism is criticized is its supposed reductionism and the related arbitrariness of choosing individuals as a unit of explanation. The paper shows that there exists at least with F. A. Hayek an author who presents an evolutionary theory of economic and social change that avoids the reductionism of orthodox individualistic theory. According to Hayek, the social scientist should try to receive insights about collective phenomena by analysing to what extent rules of behaviour are adopted by some individuals, larger groups or a whole population. Besides the selection argument, Hayek's observation of learning processes as primary factors determining behaviour gives rise to a conception of mankind far beyond optimization models. Hayek thus overcomes a reductionist individualism by taking recourse to hierarchical selection and learning processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Juergen Lange-von Kulessa, 1997. "Searching for a methodological synthesis -Hayek's individualism in the light of recent holistic criticism," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 267-287.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jecmet:v:4:y:1997:i:2:p:267-287
    DOI: 10.1080/13501789700000018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13501789700000018
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13501789700000018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bramoulle Gerard & Calcei Didier, 1999. "Hayek's Epistemology and Methodology: Between Mises and Popper," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 9(4), pages 611-634, December.
    2. Paul Lewis, 2014. "Hayek: from economics as equilibrium analysis to economics as social theory," Chapters, in: Roger W. Garrison & Norman Barry (ed.), Elgar Companion to Hayekian Economics, chapter 9, pages 195-223, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Daniel Fernando Zarama Rojas, 2021. "Humility's Challenge: The Political Value of Disperse Individual Experience in F. A. Hayek's Thought," Documentos CEDE 19127, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jecmet:v:4:y:1997:i:2:p:267-287. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.