Although it did not appear on their agenda, early neoliberals also placed the concepts of the “human person” and “human dignity” at the heart of the matter. For many, these were the fundamental concepts and “freedom” was the best means to achieve them, particularly in times of authoritarian regimes and war. Others, like Hayek, saw in “freedom” a fundamental concept in its own right. Hayek surely thought that the dignity of the individual was fundamental, but he rejected—as always—fixed prescriptions about how to secure it or about what freedom should serve exactly. Freedom needed to be seen as a fundamental concept, not as a way to implement other fundamental concepts, he would maintain, for in a free society one also has the choice to act wrongly.

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 354