Hayek modeled economic order on rules operating without being known
Evidence
In the Keynesian vision, the national economy is contained and money moves through it in broadly predictable and indeed plannable ways. Hayek conceded that his own vision of tubes failed for being too mechanical: it is not one substance that moves through neutral channels but energy, or knowledge, which is released in neurons at every node of connection, or the unlocking of the local knowledge of the “man on the spot” about conditions that perhaps even he could not put into words. Among his favored metaphors were the crystals formed inside of a petri dish or the constellations of iron filings responding to a magnet. As he wrote, such “physical examples of spontaneous orders … are instructive because they show that the rules which the elements follow need of course not be ‘known’ to them.” In the same way, “man does not know most of the rules on which he acts; and even what we call his intelligence is largely a system of rules which operate on him but which he does not know.” — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 172
Categorization
- DEFINE: Spells out the spontaneous-order metaphor — iron filings and crystals — that grounds Hayek’s anti-knowledge epistemology.
- XREF: connects to: Hayek grounded free-market economics in a theory of human ignorance — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 278; Hayek held that mixing spontaneous order with organization is never rational — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 209; Hayek located rationality in impersonal market processes, not individuals — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 223 (+9 more)
Broader Connections
- Hayek’s market argument rests on an epistemology of dispersed tacit knowledge
#expands(0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 72 - Hayek justified markets by dispersed knowledge, not happiness maximization
#expands(0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2195 - Hayek saw society as a spontaneous order, not a dutiful organization
#corroborates(0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 146