On The Postmodern Elements In Hayek's Philosophy Of Law

Hayek don't regard enlightenment as a general concept,but recognizes the independent status of Scottish Enlightenment thought with empiricism as the tradition and skeptical,vigilant attitude towards rationality;Popper's critical rationalism agree that all scientific knowledge is nothing but the summary of experience,and we must be vigilant about the accuracy and stability of its;the interaction with Popper promotes Hayek to ponder the the philosophical origin of free market economy;influenced by the Scottish school and Popper,Hayek's philosophy has the background of Irrationalism.Hayek's Theory of Mind holds that the sensory order has the complexity that human intelligence can't reach,due to the existence of super-conscious experience and complex classification system of neurons;besides consciousness,there is a wide field of unconsciousness in the brain;through the Theory of Mind,Hayek's view of rationality and epistemology has obtained the theoretical logic premise based on psychology.Subjectivism and Individualism are the most important methodology of Austrian Economics,and Hayek has used this method to explain epistemology;the concept of tacit knowledge put forward by Polanyi is also used by Hayek as reference in his epistemology,and the research results of Theory of Mind inspired by Polanyi greatly promote the change of his later epistemology.Based on the complexity of mind,Hayek advocates the finiteness of reason on the individual level;through the elaboration of the desirability of spontaneous order,Hayek also holds the view of limited rationalism on a more macro level.Rationalism belongs to the dominant road in western philosophy,but Postmodernism is often expressed in the form of irrationalism or even anti rationalism.However,Hayek and Postmodernism do not blindly oppose reason,but accuse that the problem of reason is that its role has been exaggerated;through the reflection of enlightenment reason,the emphasis on some irrational factors and the criticism of rational authority,they express their common position against rationalism.In Hayek's view,the limited rationality of human make everyone have no right to interfere with others,so the meaning of freedom is to avoid others' coercion,and the function of law is to clarify the scope and boundary of individual's freedom from coercion;view of freedom in Postmodernism is similar to Hayek's,and the elimination of rational coercion and the realization of irrational freedom are the deep desire of postmodernism.Hayek's view of freedom takes individualism as the methodological principle,he holds that the progress of social civilization is based on extensive individual freedom,and the social order based on individual freedom is more effective.The irrational factors such as sensibility,intuition and passion advocated by Postmodernism naturally contain individualism,these factors express the freedom of creativity,so its view of freedom also contains strong individualism.In Hayek's view,the direct field of knowledge existed is everyone's brain,and people's perception of physical phenomena must rely on the intermediary of spirit,knowledge is human's spiritual world by its nature;therefore,knowledge never exists in the form of concentration and integration,rather in the minds of different individuals separately,therefore,Hayek especially emphasizes the effectiveness of the knowledge of the particular circumstances of time and place,and tacit knowledge.The Postmodern view of epistemology holds that knowledge is subjective,uncommon and non-neutral on value in the internal way of existence,situational and uncertain in the external way of existence,and diverse and complex in the form of knowledge itself,these characteristics constitute together the Postmodern pluralistic view of epistemology.Based on Hayek's and Postmodern's respective analysis of the characteristics of subjectivity,situational and tacit of knowledge,their epistemology adopts a non-traditional point of view,which is based on the universality of the scope,subject and form of knowledge.Postmodernism criticizes meta-narratives and unitary truth discourse system from the perspective of pluralistic epistemology,Hayek expresses his rejection of the unified standard of truth of knowledge with the standpoint of limited reason.From the standpoint of epistemology,Hayek indirectly expresses the truth view similar to Postmodernism,and expounds his criticism of Totalitarianism in a logic of same construction with Postmodernism,but this similarity must be understood from a holistic perspective.