Thursday, July 13, 2006

What he said

The Volokh Conspiracy - -: "On a related note, I am quite puzzled that so many conservatives who accept the idea of spontaneous order in the marketplace are nonetheless enthralled by the idea of 'intelligent design.' As F.A. Hayek and other important economic thinkers explained, the order and coordination of the marketplace arises spontaneously and does not require any central planner (or intelligent designer). Further, the economic order evolves over time without any such central planning, as successful innovations and organizations displace their predecessors. Why is it that those who see no need to ascribe the existence of complex evolutionary organizatioal systems to a central intelligence in one sphere find the concept so necessary in another."

3 comments:

Sissy Willis said...

It's "A failure of imagination"

Charlie Martin said...

Sissy --- exactly.

Besides, what's more astonishing: "intelligent design" being run by Someone who is fiddling with it all the time, or a universe that does all this cool stuff all on its own?

truepeers said...

This argument is bass ackwards. It is the economic system that is, in fact, modelled on ideas of God and his justice, while there is no evidence for or against the hand of God in matters cosmological. The idea that an invisible hand and self-interest can explain the marketplace is lacking. Entrepreneurs, for example, are in good part altruistic: they take risks, create opportunities for others, without any guarantee of personal reward. The possibility, often long, that they might be rewarded is hardly enough to explain their behaviours. Rather, an anthropology of the sacred must be introduced into the equation.