Autonomy and Social Systems

About the book: Unlike psychologistic paradigms, the non-atomistic variant of methodological individualism discussed in this book explains society in terms of complex emergent structures that unintentionally result from human actions, and that in turn influence those actions. Friedrich Hayek is an emblematic representative of this approach, the origins of which date back to the Scottish Enlightenment. One of Hayek's most original – but also less well-known – contributions is his linking of this non–atomistic methodological individualism to a cognitive psychology centered on the idea that mind is both an interpretative device and a self-organizing system. This book uses Hayek's reflections on mind as a starting point to investigate the concept of action from the standpoint of non-atomistic methodological individualism, and it explores the connections between Hayek's cognitive psychology and approaches employed in various fields, such as phenomenology, hermeneutics, neo-Weberian sociology and enaction. Focusing on the interpretative foundations of social life, the book conceives action as a product of the human mind's cognitive autonomy, i.e. of its hermeneutic skills.