Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Knowledge: Knowledge is the awareness or understanding of something. It can be acquired through experience, or education. Knowledge can be factual, procedural, or conceptual. See also Propositional knowledge, Knowledge how._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Friedrich A. von Hayek on Knowledge - Dictionary of Arguments
Sunstein I 118 Knowledge/Friedrich Hayek/Sunstein: In his essay "The Use of Knowledge in Society" Hayek writes that the great advantage of prices is that they reflect both information and people's tastes, which is much more than planning or planned economy could achieve. According to Hayek, the information is distributed to individuals in the form of incomplete and often contradictory fragments of knowledge.(1) >Price, >Markets, >Information economics, >Economy, >Planning. Sunstein: the knowledge of course includes facts about the product, but also about customer preferences. Sunstein I 119 Knowledge/Hayek: the knowledge contained in the prices exceeds that of the best experts. Prices/Hayek: in this context, Hayek underlines the importance of prices being in motion. Small movements produce the complete economic picture, which is overlooked by many economists according to Hayek. Sunstein I 120 In particular, prices react to new information. >Information/Hayek. 1. Friedrich Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” American Economic Review 35 (1945): 519, reprinted in The Essence of Hayek, ed. Chiaki Nishiyama and Kurt Leube (Stanford: Hoover, 1984), 211. A superb treatment of Hayek’s thought is Bruce Caldwell, Hayek’s Challenge: An Intellectual Biography of F. A. Hayek (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004). - - - Boudreaux II 20 Knowledge/Hayek/Boudreaux: „Most of the advantages of social life, especially in its more advanced forms which we call “civilization,” rest on the fact that the individual benefits from more knowledge than he is aware of.“(1) Boudreaux II 21 Goods/specialization/knowledge/Hayek/Boudreaux: […] goods exist not because some great and ingenious human plan called them into being. Instead, they exist because of a social institution that encourages people to specialize in learning different skills, as well as to learn different slices of knowledge and gather different bits of information about the real world. This social institution also sends out signals to these hundreds of millions of specialist producers, informing each of them how best to use his or her special skills and knowledge so that the resulting outputs of the economy will satisfy genuine consumer demands - and do so at costs that are as low as possible. Production: [e.g., ink and paper] if these signals are reasonably accurate, the loggers’ activities are coordinated well with those of the paper mill: neither too few nor too many trees are cut down. And the paper-mill’s activities are coordinated well with those of the printer: neither too little nor too much paper (…) is produced. Boudreaux II 24 One of the most notable facts of life in modern market economies is that each and every one of the things that we enjoy as consumers is something that no person knows in full how to produce. There is conscious planning and adjustment going on at the level of each individual and each firm and each distinct organization. But there is no overarching - no “central” - plan for the whole. >Spontaneous order. 1. Friedrich Hayek (1960). The Constitution of Liberty. In Ronald Hamowy (ed.), The Constitution of Liberty, XVII (Liberty Fund Library, 2011): 73._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Hayek I Friedrich A. Hayek The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents--The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, Volume 2) Chicago 2007 Sunstein I Cass R. Sunstein Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge Oxford 2008 Sunstein II Cass R. Sunstein #Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media Princeton 2017 Boudreaux I Donald J. Boudreaux Randall G. Holcombe The Essential James Buchanan Vancouver: The Fraser Institute 2021 Boudreaux II Donald J. Boudreaux The Essential Hayek Vancouver: Fraser Institute 2014 |
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