On Apr 7, 2008, at 10:30 AM, (Chuck Grimes) wrote:
> Since I've gotten through most of Popper's critique of Plato, and had
> to put it down for the sake of sheer bordom, I now need to get
> something by Hayek. What I am looking for is not so specialized in
> economics, as in its general discussions about society, politics,
> economic systems---generally something of more philosophical bend.
Well his big hit, the one that poisoned my young mind, was The Road to Serfdom.
Probably too narrowly "economic" for what you're looking for, but a deeply weird and insane book, is Prices & Production, about which Keynes said: "[O]ne of the most frightful muddles I have ever read, with scarcely a sound proposition in it beginning with page 45, and yet it remains a book of some interest, which is likely to leave its mark on the mind of the reader. It is an extraordinary example of how, starting with a mistake, a remorseless logician can end up in Bedlam. Yet Dr Hayek has seen a vision, and though when he woke up he has made nonsense of his story by giving the wrong names to the objects which occur in it, his Khubla Khan is not without inspiration and must set the reader thinking with the germs of an idea in his head."