Alan O. Ebenstein - Rules Quotes

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Both Hayek and Locke thought that this is best achieved by limiting government's potential actions and restricting these potential actions to known general rules applicable to all. Both sought a government of rules rather than commands, the latter of which, by their nature, are not known in advance and may be arbitrary—not applicable to all. Hayek's goal was the society of law.

Alan O. Ebenstein
He did not think that all knowledge is precise. There is such a thing, particularly in the social sciences, as complex knowledge that is dependent on indeterminate variables and which thus is not susceptible to exact prediction. He sometimes referred to the lesser prediction to which knowledge such as the effects of societal rules is susceptible as pattern prediction. Where prediction is limited, control is limited. Correct prediction precedes control. The greater the accuracy of prediction, the greater the control that is capable of being exercised.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Keynes ultimately placed his hopes for good government in exceptional men. The focus in Hayek's work was rules.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Hayek was in many respects a philosophical idealist, in that he believed that ideas rule the world. It was the idea of constructivism, he thought, that has such destructive consequences. If he could combat this idea, then much good would result.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Where laws rule, people are free. Conversely, where not laws, but individuals, rule, people are unfree. Law is the indispensable tool for securing personal freedom, because only under the rule of law are individuals able to plan their lives according to known expectations about the social order.

Alan O. Ebenstein
His idea was essentially that societies are distinguished by their rules, morals, norms, customs, and laws. These create a stable pattern of interaction that allows individuals to lead their lives rationally.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Hayek's move from economic theory to political philosophy was a natural evolution in his ideas. First, he considered the influence of prices in production. Then he considered the larger question of the role of prices in social life. The conclusion he reached was that law should guarantee to each person a protected sphere within which each could live as much as possible as he pleased. Later in his career, he progressed to the idea that whole societies through their customs, morals, and rules are engaged in macrocompetition, the survivor of which would possess the customs, morals, and rules that are the most materially productive and result in the highest standard of living for the most—the economist's goal.

Alan O. Ebenstein
The idea of unarticulated, nonverbal, or tacit knowledge led, in Hayek's mind, to the further idea that legal and moral institutions store, embed, and convey tacit knowledge. Hayek considered the most important of these institutional practices to be the rule of law. The rule of law allows individuals to lead rational lives.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Hayek emphasized the importance of rules. He thought that what society should do is not to direct the individual in his or her particular actions, but to create a metaphysical structure, as it were, enforced by rules or laws, that create stable expectations and thus allow rational action.

Alan O. Ebenstein