Science vs Scientism

What Would Hayek Say?

Science is very popular in our time. As is science-based policy-making. But we don't always properly understand science, how it should be conducted, and how it should relate to our politics. In this week's "What Would Hayek Say?", we take a look at some of Hayek's work on the folly of applying natural science methods to the social sciences, which is part of what Hayek calls "scientism". For Hayek, the social sciences are distinguished from the natural sciences by a subjective factor, in that we take into account actors' intentions, opinions, and goals. Because we must start at the individual, subjective level, the social sciences are compositive in a way that the natural sciences are not. The social sciences predict a degree of complexity and unpredictability that should make us reflect on how we apply them to political decision-making.

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Scott B. Nelson is Research and Strategy Advisor at the Austrian Economics Center and Hayek Institut in Vienna, Austria. He is author of "Tragedy and History: The German Influence on Raymond Aron's Political Thought". His next book is "Cicero, Politics, and the 21st Century" to be published in 2022 by Academica Press. Nelson heads the reading group The Vienna Symposium (https://vienna-symposium.com).

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