Utilizing fragmented knowledge beyond any individual’s grasp defines advanced civilizations.

Evidence

Economics has long stressed the ‘division of labor’ … But it has laid much less stress on the fragmentation of knowledge, on the fact that each member of society can have only a small fraction of the knowledge possessed by all, and that each is therefore ignorant of most of the facts on which the working of society rests. Yet it is the utilization of much more knowledge than anyone can possess … that constitutes the distinctive feature of all advanced civilizations. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 169

Categorization

• DEFINE: Primary-source statement of the knowledge problem in Hayek’s own words.
• XREF: connects to: Knowledge in general exceeds science and even learning — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 184

Broader Connections

• Knowledge in general exceeds science and even learning #expands (0.78) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 184