In this book Friedrich A. von Hayek summarizes the main arguments for the free market economy and presents his manifesto on the "errors of socialism." Hayek argues that socialism has, from its origins, been mistaken on factual, and even on logical, grounds and that the repeated failures in the many different practical applications of socialist ideas were the direct outcome of these errors. He labels as the fatal conceit the idea that man is able to shape the world around him according to his wishes. unrevised e-book edition 2023; original edition 2011