Abstract

"Friedrich von Hayek and Karl Popper were two of the twentieth century's greatest thinkers, and two of its greatest proponents of freedom and open society. They were also close friends, and even people who are very familiar with their writings often think that their philosophical, economic, and political views are more or less the same. This book, however, argues that Hayek and Popper differed in fundamental ways about rationality, economism, and democracy--and that these differences, and the different ways in which Hayek and Popper argued for them, lie at the heart of political thought and still have significant consequences for our own political discourse today. It argues that Hayek and Popper disagreed about whether and to what extent society is well served by deliberate attempts at government intervention; about whether and to what extent democracy involves majority rule; and, most importantly, about whether we should value freedom for its own sake, as an end in itself, or merely as a means to greater prosperity and wealth. Contrary to Popper, this volume argues that Hayek was prepared to accept socialism--which in his view logically implies totalitarianism--if it could be shown to be at least as efficient and productive as the market; that his concept of freedom is grounded in the same sort of economism that Popper criticized in Marx; and that he proposed reforms to the electoral system that would actually transform a democracy into what Popper would have regarded as a tyranny"--