Hayek on Mill

📖 The Scoop

F. A. Hayek, best known for reviving the ideas of classical liberalism, was also a prominent scholar of the philosopher John Stuart Mill. Hayek is even credited with beginning a new era of Mill scholarship. One of Hayek s greatest undertakings was his collecting and editing of Mill s correspondence with his wife, Harriet Taylor-Mill. The correspondence that first appeared in Hayek s 1951 collection soon became essential reading for any reexamination of the foundation of liberalism, the sources of Mill s radicalism, and the influence of Mill s good friend and wife.
Volume 16 of The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek showcases the fascinating intersection of two prominent thinkers from two successive centuries. In "Hayek on Mill: The Mill-Taylor Friendship and Related Writings," we see how Hayek situated Mill within the complicated social and intellectual milieu of nineteenth-century Europe and within the mid-twentieth-century debates on socialism and planning. Part One of the volume republishes Hayek s own collection, "John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor: Their Friendship and Subsequent Marriage," which traces the narrative of Mill s intellectual development alongside the fascinating intellectual love story of Mill and his wife. Part Two presents in chronological order Hayek s essays and correspondence related to Mill and Taylor. These materials engagingly reveal Hayek s early interest in Mill, specifically, Hayek s fascination with the influence of Harriet Taylor-Mill and Gustave D Eichthal on Mill, in Mill s methodology and his shifting position on socialism, and in Mill s "Political Economy." Also included are various reviews and introductions to Mill s works that in large measure owe their publication to Hayek s fascinating collection."

Genre: Biography & Autobiography / General (fancy, right?)