FROM SMITH TO HAYEK - ROUND TRIP - A BRIEF-HISTORY OF THE SELF-ORGANIZATION APPROACH IN ECONOMICS

F.A. Hayek claimed that Adam Smith had applied a concept of self-organization on the lines of natural science to economics. From epistemological as well as from theoretical considerations follows that such an evaluation is not reasonable. Nevertheless, Smith is less mechanistic than this neoclassic followers. We have to differentiate between Smith's discussion of the price mechanism and other parts of his work. The track of the development of the self-organization approach is followed from Smith to Hayek's own view. In doing so the concept of Self-organization has to be evaluated for each period according to the theoretical knowledge of that time.