3,801 works, 471 books, 3,267 articles, 60 other works, 3 awaiting classification, 150 years of economic thought. Each one summarized and searchable, with cited passages inside.
How can physical processes produce sensory experience—and why might the mind remain unable to explain itself completely? In this lecture, presented in its 2017 English translation, Hayek approaches the mind–body problem through classification rather than a search for mental substance. The contrast between a linear spectrum of wavelengths and the circular relationships of perceived colours makes his question concrete: why does perception organize events differently from physics? He sketches a nervous system in which sensations acquire their character through connections, not through isolated stimuli. Yet he argues that a classifier cannot exhaustively explain an apparatus as complex as itself. Readers can trace how this proposed limit on self-explanation leads Hayek to defend mental experience as an indispensable starting point for social inquiry, even within a naturalistic account of mind.
At the same time that the system of sensory qualities disappears from physics, it becomes a problem in psychology.
A free economy needs enforced laws: opposition to government “interference” cannot therefore mean opposition to all government action. In this essay, written in 1950 and first published as a collection component in 2022, Hayek locates the boundary in the form of power rather than its scale. General, prospective rules differ fundamentally, he argues, from officials’ discretionary decisions about who may produce, trade, or receive assistance. Licences and allocations test that distinction, while generally available subsidies complicate any blanket rejection of intervention. His further warning—that constantly adjusted taxes or subsidies can become instruments of close direction—makes stability as important as formal generality. Readers encounter a defence of economic freedom that leaves some policies open to judgement while refusing to let desirable ends excuse discriminatory means.
Freedom can be endangered not only by its opponents but by defenders who stop rethinking its foundations. In this Stanford lecture of 1946, first published in 2022, Hayek asks how liberal ideas can regain political influence without becoming a fixed creed or a campaign for existing interests. His warning against comprehensive planning accompanies a constructive proposal: an international association of scholars committed to examining the institutions of a free society. Acton and Tocqueville supply a tradition for this undertaking, particularly their distrust of power even when democratically authorized. The lecture reveals Hayek’s view of intellectual renewal as practical work conducted across disciplines and national borders—and makes clear that he regards the loss of freedom as a danger to resist, not an inevitable historical destination.
It is a great tradition which we want to continue by this means, not a fixed programme which we want to put over.
Abundant gold did not necessarily give the Federal Reserve effective control over American credit. In this two-installment article of 1925–1926, Hayek examines how postwar gold inflows allowed banks to expand lending without borrowing from the Reserve banks, weakening traditional instruments of monetary restraint. His distinctive concern is what aggregate measures conceal: stable prices and loans for legitimate business purposes can coexist with investment in particular industries that exceeds available saving. Yet he also questions whether the unusual cycle of 1921–1924 can be explained by credit expansion alone. Linking bank balance sheets to the changing proportions of production, the article offers a concrete encounter with Hayek’s developing monetary analysis—and with the institutional, financial, and political obstacles to restraining a boom before it turns into a crisis.