Acta Structuralica

international journal for structuralist research

Book | Chapter

184748

From cognitive autonomy to the criticism of socio-cultural determinism

pp. 55-74

Abstract

In Chap.  2 I analyzed Hayek's criticism of behaviorism and other psychological theories. The purpose of Chap.  3 is to show that similar arguments concerning the interpretative nature of cognition and the complexity of mind, which Hayek developed against materialistic psychologies, can also be used to undermine the socio-cultural determinism of methodological holism. The possibility that socio-cultural determinism can be criticized by using the idea that the mind is a self-organizing system is discussed only briefly in Hayek's (1952b) The Sensory Order. However, the way in which Hayek used this idea to challenge socio-cultural determinism was his most original criticism of the theory of the heteronomy of sociological holism.

Publication details

Published in:

Iorio Francesco Di (2015) Cognitive autonomy and methodological individualism: the interpretative foundations of social life. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 55-74

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-19512-4_3

Full citation:

(2015) From cognitive autonomy to the criticism of socio-cultural determinism, In: Cognitive autonomy and methodological individualism, Dordrecht, Springer, 55–74.