Marxist Critique Of Hayek’s View Of Freedom

For a long time,liberalism has monopolized the right to interpret freedom,but freedom is not equivalent to liberalism’s prescription of freedom,nor is it the exclusive preserve of Western civilization and capitalism.With the continuous impact and challenge of liberalism on the mainstream ideology of China,especially on the Marxist idea of freedom,it has become an urgent need to criticize Hayek,an important representative of liberalism,with a Marxist standpoint,to reveal the essence of the liberal trend,to strengthen the leading position of Marxism in our ideology,and to implement the discourse of the materialistic view of history on the issue of freedom.Therefore,on the basis of analyzing and interpreting the basic connotation of Hayek’s view of freedom,this paper develops a critique of Hayek’s view of freedom from two dimensions,theoretical and practical,based on the principle position of Marxist view of freedom,and summarizes the practical significance of this critique.As an important representative of liberalism,Hayek’s view of freedom arose in a specific historical period and context of the times.Having experienced two world wars,Hayek witnessed the infringement and harm of totalitarianism on individual freedom,and therefore,while criticizing constructivist rationalism and constructive order,rooted his view of freedom in the epistemology of evolutionary rationalism and the foundation of spontaneous order,thus forming two mutually supportive presuppositions,namely,"the finite rational individual " and the "self-generated spontaneous social order".Based on these two mutually supportive presuppositions,Hayek defines the basic meaning of freedom as "freedom from the coercion of the arbitrary will of others",and distinguishes it from "political freedom","inner freedom" "freedom in the sense of ability or power",which expresses the basic meaning of his concept of freedom.The Marxist view of freedom,on the other hand,is based on historical materialism,takes practice as its logical starting point,and maps out a completely different research path from Hayek’s,the core of which is to establish freedom from the reality of revolutionary practice.Therefore,Marxist freedom is the result of "revolutionary practice",a dynamic development process based on the practice of understanding and transforming nature,society,and human beings themselves,which emphasizes the fundamental significance of productive forces for the expansion of freedom and considers human emancipation as the ultimate value.Criticizing Hayek’s view of freedom based on the principle position of the Marxist view of freedom,we can see the theoretical pitfalls and practical dangers inherent in Hayek’s view of freedom.From the theoretical point of view,Hayek confines himself to talking about freedom in the context of the relationship between human beings and "others" and avoids the relationship between human beings and nature,which makes him fail to see the fundamental role of the level of development of productive forces in a certain era for the emergence and development of freedom,thus deflating the material basis of freedom development,and talking about freedom in isolation from the material basis of freedom makes him This makes him fail to see the role of the level of productive forces in the emergence and development of freedom in a certain era,thus deflating the material basis of freedom development.Moreover,the abstract paradigm of thinking in Hayek’s view of freedom obscures the real and historical dimension,and also lies in the contradictions and conflicts inherent in his theory of freedom.On the practical level,on the one hand,Hayek’s insistence on the"priority of the individual" fails to reasonably resolve the dialectical relationship between the individual and society,and regards collective freedom or social freedom as a restriction and obstacle to individual freedom,thus leading to the proliferation of egoism in society;on the other hand,Hayek’s insistence on "efficiency-only theory On the other hand,Hayek’s insistence on "efficiency-onlyism" and his opposition to distributive justice,which promotes substantive equality in society,has exacerbated the lack of social justice.Through the critique of Hayek’s view of freedom,the theoretical quality and contemporary value of Marxist freedom thought are fully manifested,which is not only conducive to the implementation of the discourse of the materialistic historical view on freedom,but also can provide important practical inspiration for the development of freedom and modernization of contemporary socialism with Chinese characteristics.