"THE KEY FOR THE UNDERSTANDING OF HIS THOUGHT"

HAYEK, Friedrich A. The Sensory Order. An Inquiry Into the Foundations of Theoretical Psychology. Chicago: University of Chicago, (1952). Octavo, original red cloth, original dust jacket. $1850.

First edition of Hayek's foundational study of cognitive behavior—"an exercise in profound thinking"—in scarce original dust jacket.

Nobel laureate F.A. Hayek, a leading figure in the Austrian school of economics, was a distinguished professor at the University of Chicago when he published The Sensory Order, which expanded thoughts sketched out in an unpublished 1920 student paper. The Sensory Order was praised on publication as "a most encouraging example of a sustained attempt to bring together information, inference, and hypothesis in the several fields of biology, psychology, and philosophy" (Quarterly Review of Psychology). Fellow Nobel laureate Gerald Edelman singled out The Sensory Order "as an exercise in profound thinking by a man who simply considers knowledge for its own sake" ("Through a Computer Darkly," Bulletin: American Academy of Arts and Sciences 36:1:24). The Sensory Order has been increasingly recognized as "a phenomenon… Much to Hayek's disappointment this slim book was almost completely ignored while he was alive, although it clearly bears the key for the understanding of his thought. Hayek's early findings in theoretical psychology have shaped his theories of society and economic organizations" (Leube, Some Remarks, 22). Issued the same year as the first English edition, no priority established. With Hayek's Preface, Introduction by Heinrich Klüver. Sills, 281. Owner signature and title page blindstamp of Ray Pepinsky, the celebrated physicist best known for his contributions to crystallography.

Book about-fine, price-clipped dust jacket near-fine with only minor wear and slight toning mainly to extremities. A desirable copy.