Hayek and Dennett on the Design Fallacy

Lynne Kiesling

Since we’re riffing off of Hayek today, I’ll take one of his most pithy and insightful quotes, from The Fatal Conceit:

The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

I want to use that quote to tee up a video I’ve been meaning to share for some time — philosopher Daniel Dennett discussing evolution, and how the attempt to infer “intelligent design” in evolutionary processes reveals just how deeply the design fallacy runs in human cognition.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzN-uIVkfjg]

Why do humans have so much difficulty with emergence, with spontaneous/unplanned order? Why do so many people believe that ordered and coordinated outcomes must be intentionally designed?

5 thoughts on “Hayek and Dennett on the Design Fallacy”

  1. When I tried to discuss these ideas with Dennett years ago (I was a student of Alex Rosenberg & Larry Wright, two of leading written in the field of teleological explanation & the philosophy of Darwinian biology) is was clear that Dennett knew nothing of Hayek’s work, not even Hayek landmark Global Brain Theory work in _The Sensory Order_ (see Joaquin Fuster on this topic).

  2. Ironically, in the 1990s Dennett was still using biological species as examples of Platonic / linguistic natural kinds in his work on language, brain, intensionality and intentionality. Evidently, he’d never read David Hull’s work either.

    He’s come a long way.

  3. Dennett’s work on patterns and explanation is very similar to Hayek’s.

    Dennett could learn a lot if he’d read some Hayek, especially Hayek on free will, pattern prediction, and responsibility.

    My sense is that political he can’t bring himself to look at it.

  4. Pingback: Hayek and Dennett on the design fallacy-Financial News | Coffee At Joe's

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