Hayek is not as precise as Popper, but he intuits that resistance to collectivism requires an anti-metaphysical stance. Since the basic principle of individualism is individual liberty, we must resist anything that compels our choices, even holding at arm’s length the compelling character of solid and significant moral truths. “There is nothing in the basic principles of liberalism to make it a stationary creed,” Hayek writes.27 The essence of individualism is the freedom of every individual to be “the ultimate judge of his ends.”28 I must have the liberty to decide what is good or bad for me.
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