F.A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy, and Social Philosophy

Why it’s on the list: Peter Boettke’s intellectual biography of Hayek, arguing that the technical economics, the political economy and the social philosophy are one project rather than three careers — held together by the problem of knowledge, with prices as a way of communicating dispersed information nobody holds centrally.

Where I heard about it

• Brendan McCord — on his Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, March 2026, paired with Mises in the Austrian School Economics section: the school stated in its own terms, then read as a single research programme by a modern interpreter. Full list: The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this card came from.
• Economics — the discipline Hayek’s knowledge problem was addressed to.
• Institutions — Boettke’s organizing category for the later Hayek.
• Epistemology — the knowledge problem that unifies the reading.