Hayek's challenge to economists

Bruce Caldwell argues that Hayek eventually favoured an evolutionary response, and he endorses this recommendation. I am increasingly inclined to agree, although I believe that the concept of evolution needs to be handled with some care. Hayek himself was cautious, not least in The Sensory Order, where he carefully avoided any discussion of the relative roles of evolution within the species and evolution within the individual. He does not even attempt to explain why the sensory order is formed before the physical order. However we can supplement Hayek’s theory of the mind – which seems to be broadly consistent with contemporary neuroscience – with earlier attempts to explain the development of human knowledge.