Individualism: True and False [What Would Hayek Say?] 

Individualism isn't always a popular word these days. Some consider it the opposite of community and society, a glorification of the worst forms of selfishness, and even an impediment to the pursuit of virtue and moral excellence. These prejudices against individualism emerge because of what Hayek calls "false individualism". In this week's "What Would Hayek Say?" we take a look at Hayek's 1945 essay "Individualism: True and False", which already lays the foundation for many of Hayek's later key ideas, such as spontaneous order. Following Hayek, we show how false individualism grew out of the Cartesian rationalist tradition and ultimately came to be associated with socialism. True individualism, by contrast, is that of the great British liberals, such as Adam Smith and Edmund Burke. Finally, we demonstrate how true individualism in fact provides a valuable corrective to all of the alleged problems with individualism.
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Scott B. Nelson is Research and Strategy Advisor at the Austrian Economics Center and Hayek Institut in Vienna, Austria. He is author of "Tragedy and History: The German Influence on Raymond Aron's Political Thought". His next book is "Cicero, Politics, and the 21st Century" to be published in 2022 by Academica Press. Nelson heads the reading group The Vienna Symposium (vienna-symposi...).
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