Alan O. Ebenstein - Time Quotes

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Before the middle 1930s, Hayek followed Mises in adopting an a priori conception of the theory of economic activity, although Hayek said he was never an a priorist philosophically. Following Mises, however, he thought at this time that economic theory is strictly deductive from premises. Economic theory consists of laws derived from the pure logic of choice of economic actors. Economics is not an empirical science, Hayek then thought.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Hayek possessed a towering intellect. At the same time, his intelligence was as much brittle as it was powerful.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Hayek abhorred Hegel, considering his work virtually without value. At the same time, Hegel's emphasis on mind and idealism indicate the philosophical heritage from which Hayek sprang.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Hayek had high regard for Marx in technical economic theory and considered him a predecessor in his business cycle theory. [...] It was not in technical economic theory that the classical Austrians disagreed with Marx. So towering a figure in history is Marx that discussion of his thought in summary form is always difficult, for there is so much that he said and that others have said about him. At the same time, so tendentious, ill-spirited, and just plain wrong a thinker was Marx that it is surprising that he may have had some of the influence attributed to him. Hayek's opposition to Marx was in the realm of practical political emanations from Marx's thought. Here he considered Marx's influence to have been wholly pernicious.

Alan O. Ebenstein
The beauty of evolution is that it is into the unknown. The detrimental aspect of planning is that it is limited to what individuals can conceive at a point in time. It is precisely the virtue of natural and spontaneous evolution that its outcomes are not known to individuals before they occur.

Alan O. Ebenstein
The time component of economic production became vital in Hayek's work in economic theory. Essentially, his economic work could be said to rest on the idea that the price system is a method for coordinating economic activity through time.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Hayek's essential gist in capital theory was that capital is heterogeneous, that it cannot be put to many uses simultaneously or at different times. If these empirical assumptions as to capital's heterogeneity are false, then his theoretical system of economic activity falls. Hayek never established that changes in interest rates primarily and predominantly influence capital production of goods of higher order and their prices.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Hayek's approach was largely Burkean. He saw much good in inherited institutions, and yet, at the same time, he also saw the desirability and necessity of change.

Alan O. Ebenstein
Time is basic in Hayek's concept of economic activity and the role of capital. Production occurs over time. The price system is in part an intertemporal valuing system.

Alan O. Ebenstein