Di Iorio offers a new approach to HayeksSensory Order, linking neuroscience to the oldVerstehentradition and to contemporary theories of self-organizing systems; this should be on the reading list of everyone who is interested in Hayeks thought.
Barry Smith
University at Buffalo, editor ofThe Monist
This impressive and well-researched book breaks new ground in our understanding of F.A. Hayek and of methodological individualism more generally. It shows that methodological individualism sanctions neither an atomistic view of society nor a mechanical determinism. The book carefully analyzes an important tradition in the social sciences, and compares it to many important philosophical, sociological and economic systems of thought. This is an enlightening book for all scholars interested in the methodological problems of the social sciences.
Mario J. Rizzo
New York University
One of Hayeks most important contributions is his linking of complex methodological individualism, which deals with the emergence of spontaneous orders and unintended collective structures in complex self-organizing social systems, with a cognitive psychology. What makes Francesco Di Iorios book of great interest is that, by building on Hayeks seminal bookThe Sensory Order, it deepens the connections between cognition and rules of just conduct, taking into account relevant theories on subjectivity and consciousness such as phenomenology, hermeneutics and enactivism.
Jean Petitot
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, EHESS, Paris
In this thoughtful and enlightening book Francesco Di Iorio uses Hayeks cognitive psychology as the starting point for investigation of the relationship between the autonomy of the agent and socio-cultural influences within methodological individualism. The book provides anilluminating and innovative analysis of a central issue in the philosophy of social science by setting Hayeks view on mind and action in fruitful relation to approaches such as Gadamers hermeneutics, Merleau-Pontys phenomenology, Varelas and Maturanas enaction, Boudons interpretative sociology, Poppers fallibilism and Mises praxeology. One of the most interesting aspects of this book is its argument that hermeneutics and fallibilism refer not to two different methods but to the same one.
Dario Antiseri
Emeritus Professor at LUISS University, Rome
Francesco Di Iorios book explores, in an original way, the connections between Hayeks methodological individualism and his fascinating idea that human mind is both an interpretative device and a self-organizing system. It is a brilliant, clearly written work, characterized by a certain intellectual courage, which makes a remarkable contribution to the sociology of knowledge.
Gérald Bronner
Paris Diderot University
