Hayek, The Road to Serfdom - 15th Session

Monday, October 19, 2020, 15th session

Chapter 5. Planning and Democracy

Individual Ends and Common Ends

Agreement on Methods but Disagreement on Ends

The Road to Serfdom Reading Discussion 15th Online Meeting: Mori, Kangyoung, Rosha, Yuron

I joined the online meeting about 10 minutes late, and Mori welcomed me. Since no one else was there yet, the two of us briefly caught up on recent events. I explained the teaching method of the “Paul Math School,” which I had recently attended. I introduced its approach to school management, which encourages students—who spend so much time being forced to cram knowledge from countless subjects into their heads—to think about whether such things are really helpful and whether there might be other alternatives. Mori commented that, in the end, the people who change the world are those who seek better methods and present alternatives.

P104 Individual Ends and Common Ends

It explains the ultimate point on which all individualist philosophy is based. First, no one can know another person’s individual interests and purposes. This is because the scales of value exist only within each individual’s own mind.

Therefore, the essence of the individualist position is precisely to regard the individual as the final judge of his own ends—in other words, the belief that, as far as possible, his own views should govern his own actions.

At this point, Mori said that this was a very important passage. I also thought that the essence of individualism was ultimately well expressed in the sentence above. Gyeseon said that the liberalism we advocate now means moving in the direction in which liberalism is realized, and that there is no immediate perfect answer.

Of course, individualism can also allow for common ends. This can happen when individuals’ purposes “coincidentally” align, and several people join together in pursuit of that shared purpose.

As I came to understand liberalism and individualism a little better, the word I had personally felt uneasy about was “social.” At the same time, however, I could not deny that there are clearly points at which “common ends” have value. I was very glad that reading this passage helped me sort out these contradictory thoughts within myself.

Organizations (such as the state) that individuals decide to form in order to combine cooperative efforts to realize a common purpose have their own system of ends and means. But any organization so formed has its own separate and limited sphere. -omitted

Reading this part made me think about what the role of the “state” is, why that role should be minimized as much as possible, and yet why it would be difficult for the existence of the “state” ever to disappear completely. It is certainly true that the greater the role of the state, the more individual freedom is reduced. But that does not mean that simply shrinking the role of the state is always the right answer. The reason is that there can clearly be areas of agreement that exist in order to achieve each individual’s purposes. For example: protection from crime, war, fraud, etc.

On the other hand, I also thought of those who completely deny any reason for the state’s existence. I think they clearly arrived at such conclusions for very logical reasons. But the world surely has many aspects that cannot be explained by logic alone. Therefore, I thought the best answer would lie somewhere in the middle, and that the process of finding it is constantly being attempted by someone.

P107 Agreement on Methods but Disagreement on Ends

To agree only that there should be centralized planning, without any agreement on ends, is like a group of people deciding to set out on a journey without agreeing on where they are going.

Reading this part, I was able to hear stories from Mori and Gyeseon about people around them who had been involved in left-wing activism. I could picture how, with the “end” gone, only the “method” remained for them. At the same time, we also talked with regret about how those now called the “right” are behaving in ways no different from the left described above.

The National Assembly is an incompetent and inefficient “place full of talk”

A National Assembly that tries to undertake too much planning and control will inevitably become incapable and ineffective, unable to accomplish anything at all. I understood Mori’s explanation well: no plan will be properly carried out, and in the end, in order to decide and implement anything, it will ultimately lead to “fascism.”

Lastly, I talked about what a close older friend had told me today regarding the current situation in Indonesia. Because people had long lived divided across some 16,000 islands, individuals had been unable to connect with one another. But with the spread of smartphones, they became able to “connect.” As a result, e-commerce and online banking spread, and thanks to that, they are only now able to fully enjoy many of the conveniences of modern society. For example: fabric softener, detergent, etc.

Mori commented that this seemed to be the truly beautiful face of capitalism. I also agreed with the explanation that capitalism is such that developing countries are not doomed to remain exploited and poor forever; rather, precisely because they lack existing legacy systems, the most efficient technologies of today can be applied after skipping several generations, allowing them to quickly catch up with—or even overtake—those ahead of them.

Anyone who wishes to join the online reading group every Monday evening is invited to the open chat room at the link below.

https://open.kakao.com/o/gX3OIqtb

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Original title: 하이에크 <노예의 길>-15차

Author: Jayujuui Ipmun Dokseo Toronmoim

Date: 2020-10-19

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=reading01&pn=8&idx=23180