friedrich hayek the constitution of liberty

Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom.Ĭhap.What a free society offers to the individual is much more than what he would be able to do if only he were free.No human mind can comprehend all the knowledge which guides the actions of society.6 Quotes about The Constitution of Liberty.5 Postscript: Why I Am Not a Conservative.17 : The Decline of Socialism and The Rise of the Welfare State 14 : The Safeguards of Individual Liberty 12 : The American Contribution: Constitutionalism 2 : The Creative Power of a Free Civilization Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty (The University of Chicago, 1960). A society that does not recognize that each individual has values of his own which he is entitled to follow can have no respect for the dignity of the individual and cannot really know freedom.įriedrich A. If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion. It is indeed probable that more harm and misery have been caused by men determined to use coercion to stamp out a moral evil than by men intent on doing evil.

Those who plead for liberty differ from the rest in that they include among the ignorant themselves as well as the wisest. All political theories assume, of course, that most individuals are very ignorant. Our faith in freedom does not rest on the foreseeable results in particular circumstances, but on the belief that it will, on balance, release more forces for the good than for the bad. The book was first published in 1960 by the University of Chicago Press and it is an interpretation of civilization as being made possible by the fundamental principles of liberty, which the author presents as prerequisites for wealth and growth, rather than the other way around. The Constitution of Liberty is a book by Austrian economist and Nobel Prize recipient Friedrich Hayek.

Friedrich hayek the constitution of liberty