Hayek’s Approach to Cognitive and Social Order

The human being can be regarded as a product of evolution. She has prevailed in the evolutionary process because of her ability to cre-ate and to use knowledge. The creation and the use of knowledge depend on the cognitive and on the social order. Both types of or-der are interdependent. Hayek sought to analyze the principles of both types of order. In particular, he based his analysis on three re-search disciplines: Evolutionary Epistemology, Cognitive Psychology, and Systems Theory. In this article, we recapitulate and revise his respective analysis. Hayek’s approach thus appears as particularly sustainable and powerful