The Fatal Conceit

The Fatal Conceit

Author	Friedrich Hayek
Language	English
Series	The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek
Subject	Socialism
Publisher	University of Chicago Press (US) Routledge Press (UK)
Publication date	1988
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print
Pages	194
ISBN	0-226-32066-9
OCLC	24815557

The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism is a book written by the economist and political philosopher Friedrich Hayek and edited by the philosopher William Warren Bartley. The book was first published in 1988 by the University of Chicago Press. ^[1]

The title of the book derives from a passage in Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), though the exact phrase does not occur in Smith's book. ^[2]

Summary

In this book, Hayek aims to refute socialism by demonstrating, not only that socialist theories are logically incorrect, but also that even the premises those theories rely on are incorrect. According to Hayek, civilizations grew because societal traditions placed importance on private property, enabling economic expansion, trade, and eventually the modern capitalist system, which he calls the extended order. ^[3] Hayek says this demonstrates a key flaw within socialist thought, which holds that only purposefully designed changes can be maximally efficient. He also says that “statist” economies (which include socialist economies) cannot be efficient because efficiency in a modern economy requires that knowledge be dispersed rather than concentrated. Hayek notes that modern civilization and all its customs and traditions naturally led to the current order and are needed for its continuance. It follows therefore, he asserts, that fundamental changes to the system—-made in an attempt to control it—-are impossible or unsustainable in modern civilization, and so are doomed to fail. Price signals are the only means of enabling each economic decision maker to exchange tacit knowledge or dispersed knowledge with each other to solve the economic calculation problem.

Authorship

There is scholarly debate on the extent of William Warren Bartley's influence on the work. ^[4] Officially, Bartley was the editor who prepared the book for publication once Hayek fell ill in 1985. However, the inclusion of material from Bartley's philosophical point of view and citations that other people provided to Bartley ^[5] have led to questions about how much of the book was written by Hayek and whether Hayek knew about the added material. Bruce Caldwell thinks the evidence "clearly points towards a conclusion that the book was a product more of [Bartley's] pen than of Hayek's. ... Bartley may have written the book". ^[6]

See also

• Dispersed knowledge
• Fallibilism
• Invisible hand
• Opportunity cost
• Tax choice
• "The Use of Knowledge in Society", essay by Hayek

References

1. Hayek, Friedrich (1988). The Fatal Conceit. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
2. 'The man of system ... is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it. ... He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces on a chess-board. He does not consider that the pieces on the chess-board have no other principle of motion besides that which the hand impresses upon them; but that, in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might chuse [choose] to impress upon it.' Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, ed. D.D. Raphael and A.L. Macfie, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1984, VI.ii.2.17: 233-4.
3. Hayek, F.A. "The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism". The University of Chicago Press. 1991. p. 6.
4. Alan Ebenstein. "The Fatal Deceit". Liberty. Archived from the original on 2008-06-22. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
5. Friedman, Jeffrey (1998). "What's Wrong with Libertarianism?". Critical Review. Summer 1998: 463.
6. Karl Popper, a Centenary Assessment Vol. 1: Life and Times, and Values in a World of Facts, p. 120