Herbert Simon講座系列#28

Hayek, Sensory Order and Methodological Individualism

http://www.aiecon.org/herbertsimon.php/

Speaker:

Prof. Francesco di Iorio, 

Southeast University, Nanjing (China)

Prof. Francesco Di Iorio is currently an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Social Science in the Public Administration Department at Southeast University in Nanjing (China). His research focus is on philosophy of social science, particularly methodological individualism, hermeneutics, fallibilism, ordinary rationality, complex systems, enactivism and Austrian School of Economics.

He obtained his PhD in Philosophy from EHESS and CREA-École Polytechnique (France) in 2012. Before Southeast University, he held teaching positions at ESCP Europe Paris (France) and Luiss University (Italy) and postdoctoral positions at Duke University –Hope Center (USA) and Sorbonne-Paris 4 University (GEMASS – FMSH Fernand Braudel fellowship). His new book, Cognitive Autonomy and Methodological Individualism: The Interpretative Foundations of Social Life, is published by Springer in 2015.

議程Program Schedule:

時 間 Time	講 者 Speaker	題 目Title	地 點 Place
April 25, 2016 18:00 – 21:00	Prof. Francesco Di Iorio	Hayek as a Methodological Individualist	NCCU General Building of Colleges (South), Room 271034 政 大綜合院館南棟10樓271034室
April 29, 2016 18:00 – 21:00	Prof. Francesco Di Iorio	Sensory Order and Methodological Individualism	NCCU General Building of Colleges (South), Room 271034 政 大綜合院館南棟10樓271034室

主辦單位Sponsor：國立政治大學經濟系(Economics Department, National Chengchi University), AI-ECON Research Center

摘要 Abstracts:
LECTURE 1 Introduction Lecture Slide

Time: 18:00 – 21:00, April 25, 2016.

Hayek as a Methodological Individualist

Methodological individualism does not have a good reputation in many sectors of the philosophy of social science. According to the most widely-held view, it must be rejected because it is a reductionist approach that conceives society in atomistic terms and neglects the structural constraints that influence action. This interpretation of methodological individualism cannot be accepted because reductionism is only the most simplistic variant of methodological individualism. I shall criticize the widespread view that the entire individualist tradition is committed to reductionism and denies or belittles the effects of social conditioning. Hayek, as well other eminent authors (e.g. Weber, Menger, Mises, Spencer, Merton, Popper, Boudon), defended a non-atomistic variant of methodological individualism that is consistent with non-reductionist explanations. I shall analyze the nature of this variant and focus on the most recent criticisms brought against the concept of methodological individualism within the philosophy of social science. The goal is to demonstrate that these criticisms are based on a misunderstanding and oversimplification of this concept. 

LECTURE 2 Lecture Slide

Time: 18:00 – 21:00, April 29, 2016.

Sensory Order and Methodological Individualism

The non-atomistic variant of methodological individualism is a theory of human autonomy strictly related to an invisible hand model of explanation. ‘Human autonomy’ means that the ultimate causes of (intentional or unintentional) social phenomena must be sought in the individuals and their motivations to act, rather than in holistic social factors that unconsciously determine human actions and cancel individual intentionality. Hayek’s theory of mind, as developed in his book The Sensory Order, includes a very original argument in favor of non-atomistic methodological individualism and its interpretative approach (Verstehen), an argument that has been rather neglected by the literature on the individualism/holism debate. Hayek used refined and pioneering arguments regarding the complexity of the mind to defended human autonomy and develop a highly original critique of the notion of heteronomy supported by the proponents of holism in sociology and philosophy. I shall analyze these arguments and demonstrate that they are partly related to a restatement of ideas developed by the phenomenological and hermeneutic tradition in Continental philosophy. I shall also argue that Hayek’s theory of the self-organizing mind aids understanding of his idea that human knowledge is socially distributed and cannot be centralized.