"THE AGE PREFERRED THE REIGN OF INTELLECT TO THE REIGN OF LIBERTY": IMPORTANT FIRST OFFPRINT OF HAYEK'S COUNTER-REVOLUTION OF SCIENCE. PARTS I, II AND III (1941), HIS FIRST ARTICLES APPEARING THE SAME YEAR IN ECONOMICA, BASIS FOR HIS LANDMARK 1952 BOOK

HAYEK, Friedrich A. The Counter-Revolution of Science. Parts I, II and III. London and Hereford: Hereford Times, 1941. Octavo, original orange wrappers; pp (9)-36, (119)-150, (281)-320. $1250.

First edition of the offprint of the initial three articles in Economica that became the foundation for Nobel laureate Hayek's 1952 book, featuring his critique of "scientism," in original wrappers.

In Counter-Revolution of Science, Friedrich Hayek, who was awarded the 1974 Nobel Prize in Economics with Gunnar Myrdal, analyzes how scientism, "the slavish imitation of the method and language of Science," is at the root of totalitarianism. This first offprint of Parts I-III contains the initial three articles that appeared in Economica (1941). Later articles in Economica (1942-1944) and Measure (1951) became the basis for Hayek's 1952 book similarly titled Counter-Revolution of Science. The work features his "acute and abstract study of the essential differences in method required in the study of the physical sciences on the one hand and the social sciences on the other… [and] an amusing and enlightening account of the… origin of 'scientism' [in the 19th century]" (Hazlitt, 83). Counter-Revolution complements Hayek's classic defense of the free market, The Road to Serfdom (1948). Part I subtitled: "The Source of the Scientific Hubris: L'Ecole Polytechnique"; Part II: "Social Physics: Saint-Simon and Comte"; Part III: "Saint-Simonian Influence." Each issued in Economica, 1941: Part I, February; Part II, May; Part III, August. Separately paginated as issued.

Text with light scattered foxing; original wrappers fresh and bright. Near-fine.