Santiago Navajas

Hayek is one of the most celebrated liberal philosophers. He is often portrayed as a champion of free markets. In reality, Hayek is more a proponent of a type of state reformism. In his last intellectual stage, he theorized about what would be cultural evolution. This last paradigm causes a tension within his social vision since it raises the paradox that to save liberalism as a political framework would require a cultural intervention in society. We will try to resolve the paradox, first by showing the genealogy of its appearance and, finally, by proposing possible ways out of it. Resumen: Hayek es uno de los más célebres filósofos liberales. Suele ser presentado como un campeón de los mercados libres. En realidad, Hayek es más partidario de un tipo de reformismo estatal. En su última etapa intelectual teorizó sobre lo que sería la evolución cultural. Este último paradigma ocasiona una tensión dentro de su visión social, ya que suscita la paradoja de que para salvar el liberalismo como marco político sería necesario una intervención cultural en la sociedad. Trataremos de resolver la paradoja, primero mostrando la genealogía de su aparición y, finalmente, proponiendo posibles salidas a la misma. Abstract: Hayek is one of the most celebrated liberal philosophers. He is often portrayed as a champion of free markets. In reality, Hayek is more a proponent of a type of state reformism. In his last intellectual stage, he theorized about what would be cultural evolution. This last paradigm causes a tension within his social vision since it raises the paradox that to save liberalism as a political framework would require a cultural intervention in society. We will try to resolve the paradox, first by showing the genealogy of its appearance and, finally, by proposing possible ways out of it.