ABSTRACT
Let me sum up the situation that we have reached so far. My argument has been that Hayek, starting from concerns which might be described as broadly utilitarian, moved from an early socialism to advocate a market-based social order, under the impact of Mises and of his own development of the argument from economic calculation under socialism. This led him to a distinctive view of markets and their functions, of other institutions such as the legal system, and also of the political process. This brought him to an appreciation of the importance of individuals being free to learn, of competition as allowing for discovery and as a check upon power, and also of the inevitable imperfection of some of our major social institutions. All this, in turn, led him to the view that his early self-the person concerned with the alleviation of miseryshould turn to markets as opposed to socialism and the central direction of the economy, for the pursuit of his ideals. He argued, further, that once a moral choice had been made for a market-based social order, certain other goals, such as ‘social justice’, could not at the same time be successfully pursued.
