Does Hayek say that in any reference or letter? How about an
interview? I would like to get the reference.
Barkley's claim is what Anthony Waterman also made and now also
Bruce has made this claim. I am inclined to believe them, but I
would just like to see the evidence.
Obviously Hayek was deeply familiar with Mill, but on this issue
Hayek is particuarly critical of Mill (see his critique of Mill for
rational constructivism in The Constitution of Liberty). So I am
confused.
We know he draws the inspiration for his work on this from
Menger, and then from Mises (see his Trend of Economic Thinking
paper) in which the distinction between planned and unplanned
orders is viewed as critical.
When Hayek was the editor of Economica, Polanyi was invited to
write an essay on the 'growth of knowledge" in society in which I
believe the term spontaneous order is utilized, and the discussion
of "spontaneous order" is definitely in Polanyi's The Logic of
Liberty. When is the first time Hayek actually uses the term
spontaneous order in his writing? He certainly was talking about
unplanned orders well before he talked about spontaneous order.
I would be appreciative of learning the references.
Peter Boettke