Hayek

“ The Result of Human Action but Not of the Human Design”

In this chapter from “Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics”, Hayek explains how European thought,which comes from the rationalist constructivism of Descartes, follows the idea on the superiority of deliberate design and planning over the spontaneous forces. However, thisCartesian belief has its origin in the ancient Greek’s idea that all phenomena can only be divided into those which are “natural” or those, which are “artificial”. For Hayek,this erroneous Cartesian dichotomy is an impediment for the suitable understanding of social theory that deals with the unintended consequences of human action.
It was notuntil the 17th century when a reinterpretation of the law of nature, where term “natural” was used to described the orderliness that was not a product of human will, and“organism” to explain spontaneously grown that created the foundation of the beginning and functioning of spontaneously form of social institutions Later Adam Smith introducedconcepts like “the invisible hand”, which “man is led to promote and end which was not part of his intentions”, but it was not until Carl Merger explained even better: theissue of origin of formation and the manner of functioning of social institutions are in the essence the same. As Merger presented it, Institutions do progress in a particularway because the coordination of action of the elements that they secured prove more effective. Even though, the concept of spontaneous order has influenced social science,there are practical areas of social studies, like jurisprudence, where legal positivism still claims that the rules of justice are the result of intentional invention.