Paraphrasing Hayek's Individualism Philosophy

F. A. V Hayek, an Austrian economist, as the main representative of western liberalism school in 20th century, took it as his basic aim to guard, liquidate and explain the thoughts system with the "Individualism" at the core. His works concerned philosophy, nomology, politics, ethics, history and economy, and his study put the theory of the view of value, the theory of epistemology and the theory of the view of history into a whole. His theory is the sign of contemporary pinnacle of individualism philosophy since the modern age in the western. This dissertation has five parts to card and discuss his individualism philosophy system.First, concerning the concept of "Individualism". As this concept is quite confused in the history of thought, it's necessary to liquidate it. In Chinese context, "Individualism" is a derogratory term, which is approximate to egoism. And in the fact of western history, the using of this concept is also very confused. The French and German tradition has a different understanding on individualism from the British and American tradition. As to the common understanding in the western, the basic meaning of individualism includes the aspects just like in Chinese context, but it exists mainly as the opposite of collectivism.Second, Hayek's "Individualism". His individualism firstly means a kind of the view of value, the core of which is the determination of the relation between individual and the state, that is, the individual is the upmost value. He took it as standard thinking individual value has priority or thinking colony (state or society) value has priority to differentiate the two kinds of tradition, i. e., the tradition of Scotland Enlightening Movement and the tradition of French Revolution, and he elucidated his individualism came from the former. And according to this standard, he distinguished the True Individualism, which claims individual value priorto the colony(state or society) value, and False Individualism, which claims colony(state or society) value prior to the individual value. He thought the theoretical connotation of true individualism was individual freedom.Third, individualism and liberty. Hayek regarded liberty as the core of individualism, and he first defined the concept of liberty as a state free from coercion. This view of freedom was different from the common views like political freedom, metaphysical freedom and regarding freedom as potence. To Hayek, since the proposition that individualism was the upmost value could not be verified directly, so he gave it indirectly verifying by the practical effect of freedom: individualism conforms to "good" economy, "good" politics and western tradition.Fourth, two contributions of Hayek's individualism philosophy. A) unique view of knowledge. He thought human ignorance is inevitable, and only market can make the best use of knowledge, of which human being is most short. B) corresponding to his epistemology, in his view of history, Hayek pointed out that the order of human being "is" a expanding order. His epistemology and his view of history supplement each other, forming a complete theory.Last, conclusion. Through reviewing Hayek's philosophy of individualism, it can make us reflect: to China, as being engaged in modernization, the most important thing at present is how to treat with Hayek's historical evolutionism and free market economy system?i, e., how to treat with tradition and liberty? As a modernization- behindhand country, the ultimate value aim of China is to rejuvenate the whole nation. It is overwhelming. So, around this aim, we should emphasize how to keep a balance between tradition and liberty in China.