Abstract
This chapter examines Friedrich Hayek’s 1978/1979 dialogues on evolutionary biology with Kinji Imanishi, an influential Japanese evolutionary biologist—a conversation that has not previously been available to non-Japanese speakers. Hayek had rarely discussed biological evolution—these neglected dialogues illuminate his understanding of this issue. Imanishi offers a counterpoint to Hayek because he adopted a holistic approach to understand the evolution of the ecological system. Although Imanishi agreed with Hayek’s concept of a self-organizing society, he harshly criticizes Hayek’s argument of natural selection. This chapter highlights Hayek’s understanding of the theory of natural selection and the theory of spontaneous order.
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Notes
- 1.
Imanishi completely rejected the argument that genetic diversity due to mutation and natural selection was a principal factor of biological evolution. According to Imanishi, the current biological system as a whole was basically a result of self-generation.
- 2.
Imanishi agreed with Hayek and criticized the planned economy model because a society cannot be designed by human reason.
- 3.
Moreover, Imanishi criticized the expression, established by civilization, as being a suppression of instinct. Imanishi criticized Hayek’s obscure definition and asserted that civilization developed through an expansion of a sense of belonging, such as love of mankind as an extension of neighborly love, and that the problem is not one of instinct but of consciousness. Strangely, Hayek agreed with Imanishi.
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Egashira, S. (2017). Hayek, Evolution, and Imanishi. In: Hayek: A Collaborative Biography. Archival Insights into the Evolution of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61714-5_12
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