On Saturday evening, a Liberty Fund colloquium on the Austrian and Chicago schools of thought ended. One of the pleasures I got from doing the readings was reading sections of Friedrich Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty. I had read it over 50 years ago from cover to cover but had read only sections of it since then. So it felt as if I were reading it for the first time.
Here are two of my favorite passages:
This denial of responsibility is, however, commonly due to a fear of responsibility, a fear that necessarily becomes also a fear of freedom. It is doubtless because the opportunity to build one’s own life also means an unceasing task, a discipline that man must impose upon himself if he is to achieve his aims, that many people are afraid of liberty. [p. 72]
I agree with this thought but my pleasure wasn’t from that. It was from seeing Hayek talking about people building their lives. I had posted on this term only a few months ago and had had no idea that Hayek had used it.
If we allow men freedom because we presume them to be reasonable beings, we must also make it worth their while to act as reasonable beings by letting them bear the consequences of their decisions. This does not mean that a man [DRH edit: “person”] will always be assumed to be the best judge of his interests; it means merely that we can never be sure who knows them better than he and that we wish to make full use of the capacities of all those who may have something to contribute to the common effort of making our environment serve human purposes. [bold added]
It’s the part that’s bold that I like so much. I’ve never been totally convinced that each person is the best judge of his or her own interests; it’s just that how would we know who would be a better judge?
READER COMMENTS
Jon Murphy
Apr 17 2023 at 8:29am
And, when someone else is a better judge, it’s typically someone who has known them intimately: a family member, a friend, a mentor, etc. And even then just in very specific cases. Local knowledge necessary to be a better judge arises from intimacy.
nobody.really
Apr 17 2023 at 1:32pm
These strike me as anodyne quotes. But are they?
Henderson cites a thread when he reflected on how his daughter was “building a life” pursuing a gainful and challenging career, and this thought brings him satisfaction. But imagine that his daughter was instead struggling to raise her many children while she engaged in chemical and gambling addiction, bouncing between prison and treatment centers. Do we celebrate “building a life” only when we approve of the choices in that life or of the outcomes? How contingent is our approval of autonomy?
(I know a Christian who wearies of reading web posts such as “I got the job—praise God!” Instead, she offers honest posts from her own perspective. “Didn’t get the job. Praise God!” Her desire to promote God’s praise is not contingent on getting her own way. She embraces that whole “Thy will be done” thing.)
Also, I find the last line of the Hayek’s quote puzzling: “[W]e wish to make full use of the capacities of all those who may have something to contribute to the common effort of making our environment serve human purposes.” Does making your own choices = making full use of your capacities? For example, did Robin Williams have more that he could contribute towards “the common effort of making our environment serve human purposes”? If so, I suspect he might have made greater use of those capacities if someone had intervened to prevent him from making his own choices (i.e., killing himself due to clinical depression).
I value autonomy. But I value other things, too—and economics teaches me that at the margin, most things are trade-offs.
David Henderson
Apr 17 2023 at 2:16pm
You write:
I can’t speak for “we” here. I can speak only for myself. On your first question, yes, I tend to celebrate people building a life when they are doing what I regard, broadly, as good things. That doesn’t mean everything is good. I hate nose rings, for example, but I could still celebrate the building a life of someone who has one if he/she is doing the basics well.
I approve autonomy even when people mess up by bouncing between prison and treatment centers. Approving autonomy and approving what people do with their autonomy are two very distinct things.
Grand Rapids Mike
Apr 17 2023 at 10:55pm
The first passage about responsibility is a life lesson that should be taught, constantly. Some people are simply self directed and don’t need the reminder to take on risk and responsibility, but it helps to be pushed. Since Hayek was in the military during WW1 wonder if this passage reflected some of his military training where discipline and responsibility are inherent in the training.
As an aside, the approach to life to take on risk and responsibility is visible in athletes where success hinges on taking responsibility and risk, but it may also involve the assistance of a coach.
As another aside, occasionally will read where many people in Russia miss the old Soviet Union and its totalitarian structure. My impression that its a case where freedom is willingly given up to avoid taking risk and responsibility for ones self or life. This also seems to be a dilemma for the welfare state, that we all know provides an easy way to shun risk and responsibility, with the resulting consequences for individuals and the country at large.
Jose Pablo
Apr 19 2023 at 8:00pm
I don´t know … I tend to smile and think to myself ¨here we go again¨ when people start to talk about their countless merits when ¨building their life¨ (and “people” certainly provide me with many opportunities for that in a regular week)
I am extremely handsome and that has served me better in “building my life” than any effort or decission I have made
I have been also lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and with the right people a couple of times. That couple of happy coincidences explains most part of the “building of my life”
“Discipline” is sure a great help, but certainly some people need wayyyyy more discipline than others to “build a life”
People shouldn’t be held “too responsible” for their luck. And by looking at the “building of their lives” you can hardly tell the part that comes from luck from the part that comes from the disciplined and responsible use of their libery
Jose Pablo
Apr 19 2023 at 8:09pm
Robert Sapolsky goes even further than that to negate even the very existence of “free will” which would render the whole concept of “personal responsibility” totally meaningless
https://www.sloww.co/free-will-robert-sapolsky/
My personal experience tends to align me more with Sapolsky that with Hayek on this matter.
Grand Rapids Mike
Apr 21 2023 at 1:56pm
Seems Sapolsky is a follower of Calvin, we are predestined and we can do nothing about it and that’s all there is to it.
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