Hayek e a teoria de complexidade

The Complexity of Hayek  
by Greg Fisher

Hayek

There are a number of similarities between complex systems and Friedrich von Hayek’s work, which I’d like to flesh out in this blog. For those who want to build on Hayek’s broad approach to social systems, they need look no further than complexity theory.
Koppl listed what he thought were the similarities between the Austrians and complexity economics, using the acronym BRICE:

• Bounded rationality. This is about, in Rosser’s words, “the limits to knowledge due to logical and computational limits”. I have to say I view bounded rationality on its own with suspicion because it remains a highly inaccurate abstraction, albeit less dangerous than its unbounded parent. But that’s an unnecessary distraction here.

• Rule following “is how Hayek sees our minds operating and agents operating in the economy” (Rosser). I have some problems with rules too, preferring to think about patterns rather than rules or laws, as I discussed in my last blog. But that’s a nuance.

• Institutions were viewed by Hayek as a necessary part of the evolution of social systems. This feels a lot like the concept of self-organisation in complex systems.

• Cognition is an area where Hayek and many complexity theorists overlap. A “social complexity” lens typically leads people to drill down in to neuroscience, cognition, and psychology. This is precisely what Hayek did, publishing a number of papers in these fields; and what he did publish was notably consistent with the works of complexity theorists like Stuart Kauffman.

• Evolution was discussed in Hayek’s paper “The Theory of Complex Phenomena”, which he published in 1967. In that essay he essentially dealt with evolution as a metaphor for complex systems.
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