First published in the 1930s and 1940s, the essays collated in this volume discuss topics from moral philosophy and the methods of the social sciences to economic theory, as different aspects of the same central issue: free markets versus socialist planned economies.

In this collection of writings, Nobel laureate Friedrich A. Hayek discusses topics from moral philosophy and the methods of the social sciences to economic theory as different aspects of the same central issue: free markets versus socialist planned economics. First published in the 1930s and '40s, these essays continue to illuminate the problems faced by developing and formerly socialist countries.