The Fatal Conceit

Infobox Book
name = The Fatal Conceit
orig title =
translator =


author = Friedrich Hayek
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek
subject = Politics, Economics
genre =
publisher = University of Chicago Press (US), Routledge Press (UK)
release_date = 1988
media_type =
pages = 194
size_weight =
isbn = ISBN 0-226-32066-9
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism" is a non-fiction book by the economist and political philosopher Friedrich Hayek and edited by William Warren Bartley.

Main thesis and arguments

The book attempts to conclusively refute all forms of Socialism by demonstrating that socialist theories are not only logically incorrect but that the premises they use to form their arguments are incorrect as well. To Hayek the birth of civilization is due to the start of societal traditions placing importance on private property leading to expansion, trade, and eventually the modern capitalist system. Socialists are wrong because they disregard the fact that modern civilization naturally evolved and was not planned. Additionally, since modern civilization and all of its customs and traditions naturally led to the current order and are needed for its continuance, any fundamental change to the system that tries to control it is doomed to fail since it would be impossible or unsustainable in modern civilization. Price signals are the only means of enabling each economic decision maker to communicate tacit knowledge or dispersed knowledge to each other, in order to solve the economic calculation problem.

Contents

* Introduction: Was Socialism a Mistake?
*1. Between Instinct and Reason
*2. The Origins of Liberty, Property and Justice
*3. The Evolution of the Market: Trade and Civilisation
*4. The Revolt of Instinct and Reason
*5. The Fatal Conceit
*6. The Mysterious World of Trade and Money
*7. Our Poisoned Language
*8. The Extended Order and Population Growth
*9. Religion and the Guardians of Tradition
*Appendix A. 'Natural' vs. 'Artificial'
*Appendix B. The Complexity of Problems of Human Interaction
*Appendix C. Time and the Emergence and Replication of Structures
*Appendix D. Alienation, Dropouts, and the Claims of Parasites
*Appendix E. Play, the School of Rules
*Appendix F. Remarks on the Economics and Anthropology of Population
*Appendix G. Superstition and the Preservation of Tradition

Controversy

There is much scholarly debate on how much influence William Warren Bartley had on writing the book. [cite web|url=http://libertyunbound.com/archive/2005_03/ebenstein-deceit.html|title=The Fatal Deceit|author=Alan Ebenstein|publisher=Liberty|accessdate=2008-07-06] Officially, Bartley was only the editor who was supposed to piece together the book for publication once Hayek fell ill in 1985 but the inclusion of material from Bartley's philosophical point of view and citations that other people provided Bartley [cite journal|last=Friedman|first=Jeffrey|date=1998|title=What's Wrong with Libertarianism?|journal=Critical Review|volume=Summer 1998|pages=463] have led people to question exactly how much of the book was written by Hayek and whether Hayek knew what material was being added to his book.

References