I found it intriguing how Hayek credits the original idea of evolution to social theorist as opposed to biologist, and goes as far as to say that, “there can be little doubt that it was from the theories of social evolution that Darwin and his contemporaries derived the suggestion for their theories.” Although when two cents of thought is put into his logic, it does in fact make sense. Evolution as I understand is a process that takes (genetically speaking) millions of years for a species to acquire a specific trait, looking at evolution in terms of society’s moves much faster, and is much easier to see the path of advancement. On page 63 Hayek states:” The existence of individuals and groups simultaneously observing partially different rules provides the opportunity for the selection of the more effective ones”. In this context Hayek is referring to voluntary rules and morality and how they advance, and it easy for me to see this happening today in our country in regards to issues like the gay marriage debate, we now have states that allow gay marriage and those that don’t who is to say what “gradual change” our country will see in this area over the next fifty years.
Hayek also refers to something called “voluntary conformity” and says that it might be a condition of beneficial working of freedom. I would just like to raise this concept up for debate because I disagree with Hayek. There is no such thing as voluntary conformity it is an oxymoron.
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