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How to best and most accurately study social interactions has long been debated intensely, and there are two main approaches: the positivists, who ignore intent and belief and draw on methods based in the sciences; and the non-positivists, who argue that opinions and ideas drive action and are central to understanding social behaviour. The author's opposition to the positivists and their claims to scientific rigour and certainty in the study of human behaviour is a running theme of the book, which argues that the vast number of elements whose interactions create social structures and institutions make it unlikely that social science can predict precise outcomes.

Incisive, straightforward, and eloquent, this third and concluding volume of F.A. Hayek's comprehensive assessment of the basic political principles which order and sustain free societies contains the clearest and most uncompromising exposition of the political philosophy of one of the world's foremost economists.

Ausgangspunkt der Überlegungen ist das klassische Argument für Freiheit in Wirtschaftsangelegenheiten, die auf dem stillschweigenden Postulat beruht, daß die Politik hier ebenso wie auf allen anderen Gebieten von der Herrschaft des Gesetzes geleitet werden soll. Die Kritik an staatlicher Befassung mit Wirtschaftsangelegenheiten wird aufgegriffen, um zu zeigen, daß funktionierende Marktwirtschaft gewisse Tätigkeiten des Staates voraussetzt bzw. unterstützt. Es wird deutlich, daß die Herrschaft des Gesetzes das Kriterium für die Unterscheidung bildet, welche Maßnahmen mit einem freien System vereinbar sind oder nicht. Die Funktion von Dienstleistungen in diesem Kontext wird diskutiert. Dann werden die verschiedenen Gründe dafür aufgeführt, daß jede direkte staatliche Preiskontrolle mit dem Funktionieren eines freien Staates unvereinbar ist, ob die Regierung tatsächlich Preise festsetzt oder bloß Regeln aufstellt, nach denen die zulässigen Preise zu bestimmen sind. Insgesamt werden zwei Gründe herausgearbeitet, warum alle Preis- und Mengenkontrollen mit einem freien System unvereinbar sind: der eine ist, daß solche Kontrollen willkürlich sein müssen, und der andere, daß es unmöglich ist, sie so durchzuführen, daß der Markt richtig funktionieren kann. (RW)

A new edition of F.A. Hayek's three-part opus Law, Legislation, and Liberty, collated in a single volume In this critical entry in the Collected Works of F.A. Hayek series, political philosopher Jeremy Shearmur collates Hayek's three-part study of law and liberty and places Hayek's writings in careful historical context. Incisive and unrestrained, Law, Legislation, and Liberty is Hayek at his late-life best, making it essential reading for understanding the philosopher's politics and worldview. These three volumes constitute a scaling up of the framework offered in Hayek's famed The Road to Serfdom. Volume 1, Rules and Order, espouses the virtues of classical liberalism; Volume 2, The Mirage of Social Justice, examines the societal forces that undermine liberalism and, with it, liberalism's capacity to induce "spontaneous order"; and Volume 3, The Political Order of a Free People, proposes alternatives and interventions against emerging anti-liberal movements, including a rule of law that resides in stasis with personal freedom. Shearmur's treatment of this challenging work--including an immersive new introduction, a conversion of Hayek's copious endnotes to footnotes, corrections to Hayek's references and quotations, and the provision of translations to material that Hayek cited only in languages other than English--lends it new importance and accessibility. Rendered anew for the next generations of scholars, this revision of Hayek's Law, Legislation, and Liberty is sure to become the standard

In the years following its publication, F. A. Hayek's pioneering work on business cycles was regarded as an important challenge to what was later known as Keynesian macroeconomics. Today, as debates rage on over the monetary origins of the current economic and financial crisis, economists are once again paying heed to Hayek's thoughts on the repercussions of excessive central bank interventions. The latest editions in Routledge's ongoing series The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, these volumes bring together Hayek's work on what causes periods of boom and bust in the economy. Moving away from the classical emphasis on equilibrium, Hayek demonstrates that business cycles are generated by the adaptation of the structure of production to changes in relative demand. Thus, when central banks artificially lower interest rates, the result is a misallocation of capital and the creation of asset bubbles and additional instability. Business Cycles: Part I contains Hayek's two major monographs on the topic: Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle and Prices and Production. Reproducing the text of the original 1933 translation of the former, this edition also draws on the original German, as well as more recent translations. For Prices and Production, a variorum edition is presented, incorporating the 1931 first edition and its 1935 revision. Business Cycles: Part II assembles a series of Hayek's shorter papers on the topic, ranging from the 1920s to 1981. In addition to bringing together Hayek's work on the evolution of business cycles, the two volumes of Business Cycles also include extensive introductions by Hansjoerg Klausinger, placing the writings in intellectual context, including their reception and the theoretical debates to which they contributed, and providing background on the evolution of Hayek's thought.