Hayek and the limitations of knowledge

philosophical aspects

Stephen D. Parsons

John Watkins

pp. 63-93

in: Stephen F. Frowen (ed), Hayek: economist and social philosopher, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1997

Abstract

"On these issues which will be my main concern, thought seems to have made little advance since David Hume and Immanuel Kant, and in several respects it will be at the point at which they left off that our analysis will have to resume." (Hayek, 1982). "Our reason is not like a plane indefinitely far extended, the limits of which we know in a general way only; but must rather be compared to a sphere, the radius of which can be determined from the curvature of the arc of its surface — that is to say, from the nature of synthetic a priori propositions — and whereby we can likewise specify with certainty its volumes and its limits." (Kant, 1929).

Cited authors

Kant Immanuel

Hume David