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HEDGEHOG OR FOX? HAYEK AND THE IDEA OF PLAN-COORDINATION

HEDGEHOG OR FOX? HAYEK AND THE IDEA OF PLAN-COORDINATION Israel M. Kirzner0 1. Introduction George Shackle once wrote a paper entitled "The Hedgehog and the Fox, A Scheme of Economic Theory".1 He referred to a line from the poet Archilochus, made famous in contemporary discussion by Isaiah Berlin,2 "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Shackle explains that the "hedgehog is the system-builder, the seeker-after...a theory which explains everything by a unified conception of what the cosmos is...Such a theory might be itself compact, like the acorn, but able to unfold the whole glory of the heavens and the earth, like the oak which so massively arises...from the minute germ. The fox by contrast is the scientist who is content with...understanding one thing at a time by reference, in each case, to an ultimately arbitrary pattern...".5 Shackle himself suggests "that the economic theoretician must be content to know many * Presented on March 18th, 1999, at a conference organized by the Faculty of Jurisprudence, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale, Alessandria, Italy, to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Friedrich A. Hayek. The title of this paper, and the paper itself, came into being with its author being utterly http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal des Économistes et des Études Humaines de Gruyter

HEDGEHOG OR FOX? HAYEK AND THE IDEA OF PLAN-COORDINATION

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References (5)

Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the
ISSN
2194-5799
eISSN
2153-1552
DOI
10.1515/jeeh-1999-2-303
Publisher site
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Abstract

Israel M. Kirzner0 1. Introduction George Shackle once wrote a paper entitled "The Hedgehog and the Fox, A Scheme of Economic Theory".1 He referred to a line from the poet Archilochus, made famous in contemporary discussion by Isaiah Berlin,2 "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Shackle explains that the "hedgehog is the system-builder, the seeker-after...a theory which explains everything by a unified conception of what the cosmos is...Such a theory might be itself compact, like the acorn, but able to unfold the whole glory of the heavens and the earth, like the oak which so massively arises...from the minute germ. The fox by contrast is the scientist who is content with...understanding one thing at a time by reference, in each case, to an ultimately arbitrary pattern...".5 Shackle himself suggests "that the economic theoretician must be content to know many * Presented on March 18th, 1999, at a conference organized by the Faculty of Jurisprudence, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale, Alessandria, Italy, to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Friedrich A. Hayek. The title of this paper, and the paper itself, came into being with its author being utterly

Journal

Journal des Économistes et des Études Humaines – de Gruyter

Published: Jun 1, 1999

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