F. A. Hayek

"I must turn to the other side of the medal. It should also be obvious that the results of freedom must depend on the values which free individuals pursue. It would be impossible to assert that a free society will always and necessarily develop values of which we would approve, or even, as we shall see, that it will maintain values which are compatible with the preservation of freedom. All that we can say is that the values we hold are the product of freedom, that in particular the Christian values had to assert themselves through men who successfully resisted coercion by government, and that it is to the desire to be able to follow one’s own moral convictions that we owe the modern safeguards of individual freedom. Perhaps we can add to this that only societies which hold moral values essentially similar to our own have survived as free societies, while in others freedom has perished."

Hayek giving a copy of his book to Alex Chafuen at E.S.E.A.D.E. Argentina

En la página 108 de este libro que me da Hayek, escribe que "la elaboración formal de estas ideas [el liberalismo clásico] en el continente estuvo a cargo de los escolásticos, principalmente después de haber recibido su primer sistematización sobre bases precedentes de Aristóteles en manos de Tomás de Aquino. A fines del siglo XVI había sido desarrollada por algunos filósofos jesuitas españoles en un sistema político esencialmente liberal. en especial en el campo económico, donde se anticipó mucho de lo que revivieron los filósofos escoceses del siglo XVIII. Debe mencionarse por último que el desenvolvimiento inglés de los siglos XVII y XVII se inspiró largamente en los desarrollos iniciales de las ciudades-estado del Renacimiento Italiano-en particular Florencia--y de Holanda."

"All this provides strong argument why it is most important that a free society be based on strong moral convictions and why if we want to preserve freedom and morals, we should do all in our power to spread the appropriate moral convictions. But what I am mainly concerned with is the error that men must first be good before they can be granted freedom." Italics mine.