Hayek endorsed religious submission as a tool for market order despite his own agnosticism

Evidence

The neoliberal embrace of Christianity was not necessarily a product of faith. Hayek was himself agnostic, but he believed that Christianity was essential for cultivating the morals of the market and the willingness to submit to the market order. A ‘refusal to submit to anything we cannot understand’, he warned in The Road to Serfdom, ‘must lead to the destruction of our civilization’. Hayek believed that the rise of rationalism made people unwilling to submit to anything they did not understand. Through this refusal, he argued, the rationalist may become the ‘destroyer of civilization’, and we will be ‘thrown back into barbarism’. The Austrian economist acknowledged that this submission has historically been achieved by religions, traditions and superstitions ‘which made men submit to those forces by an appeal to his emotions rather than to his reason’. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 123

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to other work on the market needing extra-rational legitimating myths — echoes Anne Norton and the hierarchy of liberties literature, also the reader’s prior chapters on the ‘morals of the market’ thesis. — connects to: Hayek valued religion pragmatically for securing submission to market order — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 356; Hayek courted Christians as necessary allies for liberalism — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 354; Hayek held that free markets require a moral culture of personal responsibility to survive — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 23 (+2 more)
• QUESTION: How does this Hayekian endorsement of tradition-based submission sit against defenses of markets as rational self-interest maximizing? Worth chasing Hayek’s own handling of the apparent tension.

Broader Connections

• Hayek valued religion pragmatically for securing submission to market order #corroborates (0.95) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 356
• Hayek feared moral and religious decline could destroy market civilization #corroborates (0.90)
• Hayek courted Christians as necessary allies for liberalism #expands (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 354
• Hayek held that free markets require a moral culture of personal responsibility to survive #expands (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 23
• Hayek treated belief in market superiority as an article of faith, not rational demonstration. #responds-to (0.70) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1887