Talk on "How to do Archival Research" with Caldwell's work on Hayek as the motivating example...
Caldwell began by explaining how his interest in methodology led to an interest
in the Austrian school, which led to the Hayek's challenge project. He
became interested in the Austrians because disputes with socialism and
positivism shaped their arguments.
As part of the Hayek's Challenge project, he went to the
Hayek archives at the Hoover Institute at Stanford and met then current general
editor for Hayek, Bartley and his partner Stephen Kresge. He quickly
learned the importance of personal relationships, both between the researcher
and those he encounters as well as the relationships between the subject of
research and the people the researcher interviews or otherwise encounters in
the course of research.
When Bartley died, the editorship of Hayek's collected works
moved to Kresge, who soon requested that Caldwell take it over.
Caldwell's position changes from having to ask for permission to quote
unpublished material to being in charge of who has said permission (and for
what).
Dr. Douglas Pearce at this point asked Caldwell to clarify
rules on quoting from unpublished letters.
Caldwell explained that one can paraphrase unpublished
material without the editor's permission, but to quote directly or extensively
one needs the general editor's permission.
Prof. Caldwell went on to explain that being general editor
requirs fundraising (for instance, to hire volume editors), a skill he learned
by doing. He credits part of his career success to fundraising talent.
Caldwell then began discussing Hayek's divorce, both to
reinforce the point about personal relationships and to make a point about
following through to correspondents' archives (to get the other halves of
conversations). He learned that Hayek's father (a medical doctor and
botanist) was highly nationalistic and embraced many of the opinions associated
with Nazism, as did Hayek's brother. His mother blamed his father for
making F.A. a liberal, as she believed said liberalism was a reaction to the
father's nationalism. Without following through to correspondents'
archives, Caldwell never would have found this fact out (and others), which
would have changed the story he will end up telling in the forthcoming
biography, especially with regard to Hayek's family relationships.
Hayek's archives include notecards he made while studying
the literature (where he would list quotes from others and citations, etc.)
Through the painstaking process of reading many boxes of these notecards,
Caldwell gained insight into Hayek's thinking about his Nobel prize and the
person he shared it with (Gunnar Myrdal). Caldwell was previously curious
about Hayek's apparent change of tone beginning in this period (from relatively
passive and softspoken to more aggressive and willing to attack others), and he
realized that Hayek in this period was incensed that he had to share the prize
with Myrdal, and that furthermore Myrdal disparaged him (Hayek) and later Nobel
recipient Friedman publicly, which to Hayek displayed a complete lack of class
and professionalism. Hayek was furthermore upset that his Nobel address
was refereed when submitted to Economica, a journal Hayek used to edit while he
was at LSE. He was offended that it was not accepted as is without an
editing process. So in this period (1970s) Hayek struck back, and began,
for instance, attacking Mill (unfairly, according to Caldwell's interpretation)
and Mill's interpreters (more fairly, perhaps).
Caldwell met with Hayek's children Larry and Christine, and
obtained much of interest from them.
Dr. Lee Craig then asked, "Were Hayek's children or
wives ever interested in his work/economics?"
Answer (paraphrased): No
Dr. Roy Cordato asked, "Where did Hayek place himself intellectually among
other Austrians?"
Answer: He was a student of Weiser, but called Mises his
"mentor." He wasn't too close personally with Mises and Popper,
though intellectually these two were the closest to Hayek.
Dr.Roy Cordato then asked, "Are Hayek's mentions of
public goods, welfare economics and the like an artifact of his studying under
Weiser?"
Answer: Not that I see.
Tim G. then asked, "Is there a connection between
Hayek's economics and The Sensory Order?"
Answer: There is not a
connection between Sensory Order and Misesian economics. There is a
similarity between Hayek's capital and cognitive theories, though (both
self-organizing systems). Current science is largely in accord with
Hayek's psychological theories. Read the book and see what you think (the
book is hard to understand).
