Freedom, Minds and Institutions

Description

Contents ......Page 5 Acknowledgments ......Page 11 Introduction ......Page 15 I. Action: Form, Meaning and Knowledge ......Page 19 1. Action ......Page 21 1.1. Happenstances ......Page 23 1.2. The Concept of Action ......Page 25 1.3. Cooperation and Freedom ......Page 26 2. Choice: Form versus Meaning ......Page 29 2.1. Content and Form ......Page 30 2.2.1. Choice as Form ......Page 31 2.2.2. The Meaning of an Action ......Page 34 2.2.3. Methodological Individualism ......Page 35 2.2.4. The Formal Approach to Action ......Page 36 2.3. Interactions and Unintended Consequences ......Page 37 2.3.2. Interactions ......Page 38 3. Value, Price, and Cost ......Page 39 3.1.1. Goods as a Web of Actions ......Page 40 3.1.2. Value from a Formal Point of View ......Page 41 3.2. The Price of an Action ......Page 47 3.2.1. Trade and Benefits ......Page 49 3.2.2. Needs Are Useless ......Page 52 3.2.3. To Pay a Price ......Page 53 3.3. The Cost of an Action ......Page 54 3.3.1. The Subjectivity of Costs ......Page 55 3.4.1. Victims and Injurers ......Page 56 3.4.2. Efficiency: Travels in Different Directions ......Page 58 3.4.3. Kinds of Approaches to Individual Plans ......Page 59 3.5.1. Benefits for a Given Individual ......Page 62 3.5.2. Goods and Bads ......Page 63 3.5.3. The Efficiency of Cooperation ......Page 64 3.5.4. Being in a Better State ......Page 65 3.6. The Problem of Collective Efficiency ......Page 67 4. Institutions as Rules ......Page 69 4.1. Rules as Constraints ......Page 70 4.1.2. Arbitrary Power ......Page 71 4.2. Rules and Efficiency ......Page 72 4.2.1. Unnecessary Efficiency ......Page 73 4.2.2. Efficiency Is Not Enough ......Page 74 4.2.3. Efficiency, Rules, and Computations ......Page 75 4.3. Formal versus Concrete Rules ......Page 76 4.3.1. Kinds of Order in Society? ......Page 77 4.3.2. Rules and Evolution ......Page 78 4.4. Two Types of Interactions ......Page 79 4.5. Open and Closed Interactions ......Page 80 4.6. Institutions and Organizations ......Page 81 4.7. The Liberty Connection ......Page 82 5.1 Propositional Knowledge ......Page 85 5.1.1. The No-Justification Approach ......Page 86 5.2.1. Algorithmic Knowledge ......Page 88 5.2.2. Networks and Knowledge ......Page 89 5.3.1. The Cognitive Powers of the Individual ......Page 90 5.3.2. Direct Individualism ......Page 91 5.3.3. Indirect Individualism ......Page 95 II. Minds, Networks, and Liberty ......Page 97 6. Human Action: The Non-Formalized Approach ......Page 99 6.1. Mathematics in Economics ......Page 102 6.2.1. Objections to Measurements ......Page 104 6.2.2. Objections to the Use of Calculus ......Page 105 6.2.4. Society Cannot Be Planned ......Page 106 6.3. The Rejection of Mathematics: A Critical Analysis ......Page 107 6.4. Traditions of Praxeology ......Page 109 6.5. The Virtues of Natural Language ......Page 110 7.1. The Study of the Mind as an Adventure ......Page 113 7.3. Interactions and their Models ......Page 117 8.1. Planning and Interactions ......Page 119 8.2 The Classical Debate on Planning ......Page 120 8.2.1. Market Socialism ......Page 124 8.2.2. Hayek's Argument against Planning ......Page 127 8.2.3. Philosophical Intermezzo: Popper's Rejection of Planning ......Page 130 8.2.4. Another Interlude: Philosophy in Economics ......Page 133 8.2.5. Austrians versus Market Socialists ......Page 135 8.2.6. Two Types of Assessments of the Classical Debate on Planning ......Page 136 8.3. The Austrian Internal Debate ......Page 137 8.4. Limits of Planning as Limits of Computability ......Page 139 8.4.1. The Closed Web of Interactions ......Page 140 8.4.2. The Formal Structure of Planning ......Page 141 8.4.3. Changing the Plan ......Page 143 8.4.4. The Theory, the Ideal, and the Praxis of Planning ......Page 144 8.4.5. Beyond the Universal Plan ......Page 146 8.5. The Planner and the Libertarian ......Page 148 9. Minds, Brains, and Computer Models ......Page 153 9.1. The Classical Model of Cognition ......Page 154 9.1.1. J.R. Lucas and the Idea that Minds Are Not Machines ......Page 155 9.1.2. The Knowledge Problem from the Perspective of Computer Science ......Page 156 9.2. Connectionism ......Page 157 9.3. Computer Models in Social Science ......Page 158 9.4. Networks of Agents ......Page 160 9.5. Planning: A Reexamination ......Page 163 9.6. An Interpretation of Economic Calculation ......Page 164 9.7. Visible and Invisible Connections ......Page 168 9.8. Institutions and the Connections of a Network ......Page 169 10. Markets as Networks of Agents ......Page 171 10.1. Explanatory Gains ......Page 172 10.2. The Market Algorithm ......Page 173 10.3. Property and the Network ......Page 177 10.3.1. The Incompleteness of Rules ......Page 179 10.4. Power and the Network ......Page 180 10.5. Markets and Liberty ......Page 182 10.5.1. Corrolary: non-interference with individual plans ......Page 184 10.6. Locked in the Network? ......Page 185 10.7. Markets, Minds, and Social Stability ......Page 189 III. Transition to Liberty ......Page 195 11. Absolute Liberty ......Page 197 11.1. The Problem o f a Common Concern ......Page 198 11.1.1. Common Concerns Place Restrictions on Liberty ......Page 199 11.1.2. Erratic Interventions ......Page 200 11.1.3. The Impossibility of a Coherent Official Concern ......Page 201 11.2. The Problem of Particular Concerns ......Page 202 11.3. Limitation of Liberty: the Lack of Justification ......Page 203 12.1. Private Property ......Page 205 12.2. The Formal Grammar of Action ......Page 208 12.3. How to Cope with Complexity ......Page 209 12.3.1. Property, Compensation, and Efficiency ......Page 211 12.4. The Web of Agreements ......Page 213 12.5. The Fragility of Tyranny ......Page 215 12.6. The Collapse of Socialism in Eastern Europe ......Page 217 12.7. Institutions and Minds ......Page 218 13.1. Decentralization Is Not Enough ......Page 223 13.2. From Piecemeal Planning to Piecemeal Planning ......Page 225 13.2.1. Total Planning Was An Illusion ......Page 226 13.2.2. Popper's Philosophy and Transition ......Page 228 13.3. Communism after Communism ......Page 229 13.4. A Review of the Network of Agents Model ......Page 230 13.5. Agents, Networks, and Calculations ......Page 231 13.5.1. Reconstruction of Transition Costs ......Page 232 13.5.2. Rules and Interventions ......Page 233 13.5.4. The Market Process ......Page 234 13.5.5. Perverse Incentives ......Page 235 13.6. The Incentives in the Network ......Page 236 13.6.1. Transition to Liberty, Rent-Seeking and Incentive Structures ......Page 237 14. Minds and Markets during the Transition Process ......Page 239 14.1. Conflicts and Justice ......Page 240 14.2. Making Your Voice Heard ......Page 242 14.3. A Neighborhood Effect ......Page 243 14.4. Democracy versus Liberty ......Page 244 15. Liberty and Human Action ......Page 247 15.1. The Minimization of Interferences ......Page 248 15.2. Agreements and Efficiency ......Page 250 15.3. Taking Liberty Seriously ......Page 251 Bibliography ......Page 257 Index ......Page 267