Why did the modern world enter into a “great forgetting” about the more-than-human world so many ... more Why did the modern world enter into a “great forgetting” about the more-than-human world so many indigenous peoples took for granted? Second, how can this previous knowledge be reacquired without rejecting the very real accomplishments of the modern mentality? Many deep ecological writers have done extraordinary work on this second question. I will focus on the first, and use its analysis to add some insights regarding the second.
Central to the argument I will make is how language both empowers us and to some degree separates us from direct experience of the other-than-human world. Western languages are particularly prone to reinforcing this separation. Equally central will be a discussion of how media of communication rooted in language further distances us from direct encounter. Also important will be work in contemporary biology and ecology exploring how deeply interconnected all life forms are. The traditional Western idea of individuals, be they plants and animals or human beings, are ultimately irreducibly distinct from their environment has been shown to be mistaken. Individuals have been shown to be made up of simpler individuals who, in relationship with one another, enable emergent qualities to arise at ever greater levels of complexity. Further, while genuinely individual, they cannot be understood without reference to relationships outside what are normally considered individual boundaries.
By seeking the foundations of morality and other values in theology, reason, or will, many moderns are blinded to the fact values supporting morality and beauty exist immanently within the natural world. There is no need to import them from elsewhere. By way of conclusion, I reverse direction and describe one method available to the reader how a ‘remembering’ can come about experientially. This remembering will reconnect with an indigenous and sometimes shamanic perception of the world as alive and connected.
(PEGS) The Political Economy of the Good Society, 2006
The word “philanthropy” elicits images of the wealthy using their bounty establishing scholarship... more The word “philanthropy” elicits images of the wealthy using their bounty establishing scholarships or contributing to institutions helping the poor to assist the less fortunate. Or perhaps employing their riches to endow art museums, libraries, museums and public art, enabling others to enjoy values otherwise undersupplied. These philanthropic examples are certainly appropriate, but by themselves they are misleading.
I will offer a different analysis of philanthropy, one that by no means rejects the great merit of actions such as these, but pointing towards a larger, more liberal vision of philanthropy and its place in our world today. In the process I hope to demonstrate philanthropy’s under appreciated potential in promoting liberty, equality, environmental sustainability, and even democracy.
Abstract: States are organizations whereas democracies are spontaneous orders. Because successful... more Abstract: States are organizations whereas democracies are spontaneous orders. Because successful organizations within spontaneous orders are vulnerable to displacement through competition, one attractive option for protecting themselves is using their resources to change the rules in their favor. This is true for political parties vulnerable electorally and businesses threatened by market competition. They frequently ally to subordinate spontaneous order processes within their respective systems to the most powerful organizations within them. The result is that a democratic spontaneous order can gradually be transformed into a state. This transformation is of more than scholarly interest because, among other things, it increases the likelihood of war.
F. A. Hayek and Michael Polanyi’s distinction between spon-
taneous and constructed orders is on... more F. A. Hayek and Michael Polanyi’s distinction between spon-
taneous and constructed orders is one of the most important
insights in social science. Many of us have spent years ex-
ploring, expanding, and deepening this distinction, mostly
with regard to spontaneous orders. Constructed orders have
been far less explored from this perspective though they are
often analyzed from others. Within Hayekian circles they
are usually treated simply as human tools or machines, rely-
ing on human knowledge and intent to do what they were
constructed to do. When that knowledge is lacking they fail.
Without in any sense denigrating the important work done
on spontaneous orders and cosmos, this neglect is unfortu-
nate.
Hayek generally included taxis with simple phenomena
that can be understood linearly and reductively, contrasted
to complex phenomena which cannot, and about which
only what he called “pattern predictions” could be made. To
be sure, instrumental organizations start off as simple phe-
nomena, but key elements are people, who are not simple. If
organizations persist for long important emergent character-
istics of their own arise. Individuals are not independent of
their organizational environment nor are organizations sim-
ply tools serving human purposes.
In this sense organizations are not simply constructions as
organizations can develop emergent qualities independently
of their creators’ intentions. They possess a degree of inde-
pendence from their creators and members. Far from being
simply tools for achieving human purposes, it often seems as
if organizations are acting at least somewhat independently
of human intentions.
Modern biology offers additional insights on how such
collective entities are human creations that can reverse their
relation to human action, making human beings their tools
and resources. Organizations can actively shape their envi-
ronment to some degree independently of their creators’ in-
tentions.
I develop this argument beginning with the puzzle that
members of organizations frequently act differently and have
different values than before they joined. Analyzing this clari-
fies organizations’ emergent capacity to become somewhat
independent actors in the human world, adapting on their
own terms to the spontaneous order in which they exist.
We live in a world shaped at every level by organizations.
Nearly all of us spend our working lives within them. They
shape our politics, our religions, and many of our social ac-
tivities. In many cases they are the intermediaries between
human actions and the spontaneous orders and larger cos-
mos these actions generate. Far from being simply tools for
achieving human purposes, organizations can act at least
somewhat independently of human intentions. And not al-
ways to our benefit.
F. A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom argued central
planning in lieu of market economies inevitably resu... more F. A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom argued central planning in lieu of market economies inevitably resulted in a new ‘serfdom.” A similar dynamic arises within the cap- italist variant of a market economy, where all values are subordinated to profit and price signals have become price commands, creating a “systemic collectivism.” Organiza- tions adapting to this environment seek to buffer them- selves from uncertainty by changing rules and increasing control over resources, including human beings. As a con- sequence, a new serfdom is arising. The cause arises from the central tension within all free societies/ The organiza- tions people create, Hayek’s taxis, have interests at odds with the spontaneous orders, cosmos, that arise within such societies. If they possess the power, organizations will seek to control them.
With the publication of The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida in 2002, the ‘creativ... more With the publication of The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida in 2002, the ‘creative city’ became the new hot topic among urban policymakers, planners and economists. Florida has developed one of three path-breaking theories about the relationship between creative individuals and urban environments. The economist A¥ke E. Andersson and the psychologist Dean Simonton are the other members of this ‘creative troika’. In the Handbook of Creative Cities, Florida, Andersson and Simonton appear in the same volume for the first time. The expert contributors in this timely Handbook extend their insights with a varied set of theoretical and empirical tools. The diversity of the contributions reflect the multidisciplinary nature of creative city theorizing, which encompasses urban economics, economic geography, social psychology, urban sociology, and urban planning. The stated policy implications are equally diverse, ranging from libertarian to social democratic visions of our shared creative and urban future.
No one born in the 20th century can have missed the challenge to spiritual worldviews raised by t... more No one born in the 20th century can have missed the challenge to spiritual worldviews raised by the carnage of its wars and massacres, as well as the suffering caused by disease, natural disasters and general hard knocks of everyday life. So much pain! So much unhappiness! Neopagan religion celebrates and honors all basic dimensions of existence, but in light of so much suffering, some critics ask whether in doing so we demonstrate a naive or even willful blindness to evil and the omnipresent nature of human affliction.
On the other hand, tribes such as Wisconsin s Menimonee in governing their commons have managed f... more On the other hand, tribes such as Wisconsin s Menimonee in governing their commons have managed forests for very long periods. This is so even when they also engage in the market economy. This is because their institutions are responsive to deeper and more complex ...
Historically, libertarians and other advocates of unregulated markets have argued that freedom of... more Historically, libertarians and other advocates of unregulated markets have argued that freedom of contract and secure property rights generate prosperity that lifts all boats toward greater wealth and well-being. This outcome seems to come from the logic of a contract: each party has something desired by the other and, upon making the exchange, each ends up with something that is more valuable to them than what they gave up. Everyone gains. At this abstract level the logic is impeccable.
Abstract The market is sometimes thought to be a largely neutral means for coordinating cooperati... more Abstract The market is sometimes thought to be a largely neutral means for coordinating cooperation among strangers under complex conditions because it is, as Hayek noted, a spontaneous order. But in fact the market actively shapes the kinds of values it rewards, ...
Liberal thought has individualist or evolutionary roots. Individualist liberalism views rights as... more Liberal thought has individualist or evolutionary roots. Individualist liberalism views rights as prior to society, supports methodological individualism, and models freedom in terms of abstract choice and market exchange. Arising from the Scottish Enlightenment, the Humboldt brothers, and Darwinian theory, evolutionary liberalism emphasizes individuals and society coevolve in social ecosystems. Individual rights and freedom have social origins, with choice always occurring in contexts, some more conducive to flourishing and freedom than others. Flourishing is the ethical foundation for rights, and civil society, not markets, provide the optimal context for manifesting liberal values. Hayek developed this view, now increasingly supported by modern biology. Evolutionary traditions establish liberalism on a scientific rather than a contested philosophical foundation. In practice evolutionary liberalism has also proven a better foundation for freedom.
Why did the modern world enter into a “great forgetting” about the more-than-human world so many ... more Why did the modern world enter into a “great forgetting” about the more-than-human world so many indigenous peoples took for granted? Second, how can this previous knowledge be reacquired without rejecting the very real accomplishments of the modern mentality? Many deep ecological writers have done extraordinary work on this second question. I will focus on the first, and use its analysis to add some insights regarding the second.
Central to the argument I will make is how language both empowers us and to some degree separates us from direct experience of the other-than-human world. Western languages are particularly prone to reinforcing this separation. Equally central will be a discussion of how media of communication rooted in language further distances us from direct encounter. Also important will be work in contemporary biology and ecology exploring how deeply interconnected all life forms are. The traditional Western idea of individuals, be they plants and animals or human beings, are ultimately irreducibly distinct from their environment has been shown to be mistaken. Individuals have been shown to be made up of simpler individuals who, in relationship with one another, enable emergent qualities to arise at ever greater levels of complexity. Further, while genuinely individual, they cannot be understood without reference to relationships outside what are normally considered individual boundaries.
By seeking the foundations of morality and other values in theology, reason, or will, many moderns are blinded to the fact values supporting morality and beauty exist immanently within the natural world. There is no need to import them from elsewhere. By way of conclusion, I reverse direction and describe one method available to the reader how a ‘remembering’ can come about experientially. This remembering will reconnect with an indigenous and sometimes shamanic perception of the world as alive and connected.
(PEGS) The Political Economy of the Good Society, 2006
The word “philanthropy” elicits images of the wealthy using their bounty establishing scholarship... more The word “philanthropy” elicits images of the wealthy using their bounty establishing scholarships or contributing to institutions helping the poor to assist the less fortunate. Or perhaps employing their riches to endow art museums, libraries, museums and public art, enabling others to enjoy values otherwise undersupplied. These philanthropic examples are certainly appropriate, but by themselves they are misleading.
I will offer a different analysis of philanthropy, one that by no means rejects the great merit of actions such as these, but pointing towards a larger, more liberal vision of philanthropy and its place in our world today. In the process I hope to demonstrate philanthropy’s under appreciated potential in promoting liberty, equality, environmental sustainability, and even democracy.
Abstract: States are organizations whereas democracies are spontaneous orders. Because successful... more Abstract: States are organizations whereas democracies are spontaneous orders. Because successful organizations within spontaneous orders are vulnerable to displacement through competition, one attractive option for protecting themselves is using their resources to change the rules in their favor. This is true for political parties vulnerable electorally and businesses threatened by market competition. They frequently ally to subordinate spontaneous order processes within their respective systems to the most powerful organizations within them. The result is that a democratic spontaneous order can gradually be transformed into a state. This transformation is of more than scholarly interest because, among other things, it increases the likelihood of war.
F. A. Hayek and Michael Polanyi’s distinction between spon-
taneous and constructed orders is on... more F. A. Hayek and Michael Polanyi’s distinction between spon-
taneous and constructed orders is one of the most important
insights in social science. Many of us have spent years ex-
ploring, expanding, and deepening this distinction, mostly
with regard to spontaneous orders. Constructed orders have
been far less explored from this perspective though they are
often analyzed from others. Within Hayekian circles they
are usually treated simply as human tools or machines, rely-
ing on human knowledge and intent to do what they were
constructed to do. When that knowledge is lacking they fail.
Without in any sense denigrating the important work done
on spontaneous orders and cosmos, this neglect is unfortu-
nate.
Hayek generally included taxis with simple phenomena
that can be understood linearly and reductively, contrasted
to complex phenomena which cannot, and about which
only what he called “pattern predictions” could be made. To
be sure, instrumental organizations start off as simple phe-
nomena, but key elements are people, who are not simple. If
organizations persist for long important emergent character-
istics of their own arise. Individuals are not independent of
their organizational environment nor are organizations sim-
ply tools serving human purposes.
In this sense organizations are not simply constructions as
organizations can develop emergent qualities independently
of their creators’ intentions. They possess a degree of inde-
pendence from their creators and members. Far from being
simply tools for achieving human purposes, it often seems as
if organizations are acting at least somewhat independently
of human intentions.
Modern biology offers additional insights on how such
collective entities are human creations that can reverse their
relation to human action, making human beings their tools
and resources. Organizations can actively shape their envi-
ronment to some degree independently of their creators’ in-
tentions.
I develop this argument beginning with the puzzle that
members of organizations frequently act differently and have
different values than before they joined. Analyzing this clari-
fies organizations’ emergent capacity to become somewhat
independent actors in the human world, adapting on their
own terms to the spontaneous order in which they exist.
We live in a world shaped at every level by organizations.
Nearly all of us spend our working lives within them. They
shape our politics, our religions, and many of our social ac-
tivities. In many cases they are the intermediaries between
human actions and the spontaneous orders and larger cos-
mos these actions generate. Far from being simply tools for
achieving human purposes, organizations can act at least
somewhat independently of human intentions. And not al-
ways to our benefit.
F. A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom argued central
planning in lieu of market economies inevitably resu... more F. A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom argued central planning in lieu of market economies inevitably resulted in a new ‘serfdom.” A similar dynamic arises within the cap- italist variant of a market economy, where all values are subordinated to profit and price signals have become price commands, creating a “systemic collectivism.” Organiza- tions adapting to this environment seek to buffer them- selves from uncertainty by changing rules and increasing control over resources, including human beings. As a con- sequence, a new serfdom is arising. The cause arises from the central tension within all free societies/ The organiza- tions people create, Hayek’s taxis, have interests at odds with the spontaneous orders, cosmos, that arise within such societies. If they possess the power, organizations will seek to control them.
With the publication of The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida in 2002, the ‘creativ... more With the publication of The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida in 2002, the ‘creative city’ became the new hot topic among urban policymakers, planners and economists. Florida has developed one of three path-breaking theories about the relationship between creative individuals and urban environments. The economist A¥ke E. Andersson and the psychologist Dean Simonton are the other members of this ‘creative troika’. In the Handbook of Creative Cities, Florida, Andersson and Simonton appear in the same volume for the first time. The expert contributors in this timely Handbook extend their insights with a varied set of theoretical and empirical tools. The diversity of the contributions reflect the multidisciplinary nature of creative city theorizing, which encompasses urban economics, economic geography, social psychology, urban sociology, and urban planning. The stated policy implications are equally diverse, ranging from libertarian to social democratic visions of our shared creative and urban future.
No one born in the 20th century can have missed the challenge to spiritual worldviews raised by t... more No one born in the 20th century can have missed the challenge to spiritual worldviews raised by the carnage of its wars and massacres, as well as the suffering caused by disease, natural disasters and general hard knocks of everyday life. So much pain! So much unhappiness! Neopagan religion celebrates and honors all basic dimensions of existence, but in light of so much suffering, some critics ask whether in doing so we demonstrate a naive or even willful blindness to evil and the omnipresent nature of human affliction.
On the other hand, tribes such as Wisconsin s Menimonee in governing their commons have managed f... more On the other hand, tribes such as Wisconsin s Menimonee in governing their commons have managed forests for very long periods. This is so even when they also engage in the market economy. This is because their institutions are responsive to deeper and more complex ...
Historically, libertarians and other advocates of unregulated markets have argued that freedom of... more Historically, libertarians and other advocates of unregulated markets have argued that freedom of contract and secure property rights generate prosperity that lifts all boats toward greater wealth and well-being. This outcome seems to come from the logic of a contract: each party has something desired by the other and, upon making the exchange, each ends up with something that is more valuable to them than what they gave up. Everyone gains. At this abstract level the logic is impeccable.
Abstract The market is sometimes thought to be a largely neutral means for coordinating cooperati... more Abstract The market is sometimes thought to be a largely neutral means for coordinating cooperation among strangers under complex conditions because it is, as Hayek noted, a spontaneous order. But in fact the market actively shapes the kinds of values it rewards, ...
Liberal thought has individualist or evolutionary roots. Individualist liberalism views rights as... more Liberal thought has individualist or evolutionary roots. Individualist liberalism views rights as prior to society, supports methodological individualism, and models freedom in terms of abstract choice and market exchange. Arising from the Scottish Enlightenment, the Humboldt brothers, and Darwinian theory, evolutionary liberalism emphasizes individuals and society coevolve in social ecosystems. Individual rights and freedom have social origins, with choice always occurring in contexts, some more conducive to flourishing and freedom than others. Flourishing is the ethical foundation for rights, and civil society, not markets, provide the optimal context for manifesting liberal values. Hayek developed this view, now increasingly supported by modern biology. Evolutionary traditions establish liberalism on a scientific rather than a contested philosophical foundation. In practice evolutionary liberalism has also proven a better foundation for freedom.
Methodological individualism provides important insights into spontaneous orders, but is inadequa... more Methodological individualism provides important insights into spontaneous orders, but is inadequate to probe their reciprocal impact upon the individuals whose actions generate the system, or their mutual relationships. When spontaneous orders such as science and the market interact, the interacting emergent properties arising from different spontaneous orders, combined with systemically generated values detached from the values of those whose actions produce them lead to phenomena inaccessible to analysis by methodological individualist approaches. better studied within an ecological framework. This paper integrates Paul Lewis's exploration of emergent qualities in complex orders with Gus diZerega's exploration of interactions between multiple such orders, and argues such an approach enriches the number of issues open for examination as well as providing a foundation for a theory of civil society. __________ A scientific methodology is only as useful as the light it sheds on phenomena that interest us. Methodologies are tools for studying reality, and like any tool, incorporate an ontology, assumptions about the reality they are supposed to investigate. Based on these assumptions, scientific methodologies select what matters most in understanding something from the enormous number of phenomena in the world. In doing so, each methodology necessarily
Robin Wall Kimmerer has written an extraordinarily insightful book built around Native American c... more Robin Wall Kimmerer has written an extraordinarily insightful book built around Native American cultural themes and modern science.
At first glance, Suzanne Simard's Finding the Mother Tree is an odd book to be reviewed in Cosmos... more At first glance, Suzanne Simard's Finding the Mother Tree is an odd book to be reviewed in Cosmos and Taxis. It is largely about trees. Simard is a professor of Forest Ecology at UBC, Vancouver. She is best known for her initial extraordinary finding that many trees are connected together through mycorrhizal fungi, and these connections enable trees even of different species to support one another rather than simply existing as isolated individuals. Her Ph.D. dissertation detailing her research led to front page billing in Nature, one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals. It was there the term "wood wide web" was coined to describe her discovery. It caught on. Simard and others' subsequent discoveries demonstrate trees are far more interlinked with one another, and with other organisms, than scientists had ever imagined. In her research, Simard demonstrated trees, living side by side for hundreds of years, recognized neighbors,
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Papers by Gus DiZerega
Central to the argument I will make is how language both empowers us and to some degree separates us from direct experience of the other-than-human world. Western languages are particularly prone to reinforcing this separation. Equally central will be a discussion of how media of communication rooted in language further distances us from direct encounter. Also important will be work in contemporary biology and ecology exploring how deeply interconnected all life forms are. The traditional Western idea of individuals, be they plants and animals or human beings, are ultimately irreducibly distinct from their environment has been shown to be mistaken. Individuals have been shown to be made up of simpler individuals who, in relationship with one another, enable emergent qualities to arise at ever greater levels of complexity. Further, while genuinely individual, they cannot be understood without reference to relationships outside what are normally considered individual boundaries.
By seeking the foundations of morality and other values in theology, reason, or will, many moderns are blinded to the fact values supporting morality and beauty exist immanently within the natural world. There is no need to import them from elsewhere. By way of conclusion, I reverse direction and describe one method available to the reader how a ‘remembering’ can come about experientially. This remembering will reconnect with an indigenous and sometimes shamanic perception of the world as alive and connected.
I will offer a different analysis of philanthropy, one that by no means rejects the great merit of actions such as these, but pointing towards a larger, more liberal vision of philanthropy and its place in our world today. In the process I hope to demonstrate philanthropy’s under appreciated potential in promoting liberty, equality, environmental sustainability, and even democracy.
threatened by market competition. They frequently ally to subordinate spontaneous order processes within their respective systems to the most powerful organizations within them. The result is that a democratic spontaneous order can gradually be transformed into a state. This transformation is of more than scholarly interest because, among other things, it increases the likelihood of war.
taneous and constructed orders is one of the most important
insights in social science. Many of us have spent years ex-
ploring, expanding, and deepening this distinction, mostly
with regard to spontaneous orders. Constructed orders have
been far less explored from this perspective though they are
often analyzed from others. Within Hayekian circles they
are usually treated simply as human tools or machines, rely-
ing on human knowledge and intent to do what they were
constructed to do. When that knowledge is lacking they fail.
Without in any sense denigrating the important work done
on spontaneous orders and cosmos, this neglect is unfortu-
nate.
Hayek generally included taxis with simple phenomena
that can be understood linearly and reductively, contrasted
to complex phenomena which cannot, and about which
only what he called “pattern predictions” could be made. To
be sure, instrumental organizations start off as simple phe-
nomena, but key elements are people, who are not simple. If
organizations persist for long important emergent character-
istics of their own arise. Individuals are not independent of
their organizational environment nor are organizations sim-
ply tools serving human purposes.
In this sense organizations are not simply constructions as
organizations can develop emergent qualities independently
of their creators’ intentions. They possess a degree of inde-
pendence from their creators and members. Far from being
simply tools for achieving human purposes, it often seems as
if organizations are acting at least somewhat independently
of human intentions.
Modern biology offers additional insights on how such
collective entities are human creations that can reverse their
relation to human action, making human beings their tools
and resources. Organizations can actively shape their envi-
ronment to some degree independently of their creators’ in-
tentions.
I develop this argument beginning with the puzzle that
members of organizations frequently act differently and have
different values than before they joined. Analyzing this clari-
fies organizations’ emergent capacity to become somewhat
independent actors in the human world, adapting on their
own terms to the spontaneous order in which they exist.
We live in a world shaped at every level by organizations.
Nearly all of us spend our working lives within them. They
shape our politics, our religions, and many of our social ac-
tivities. In many cases they are the intermediaries between
human actions and the spontaneous orders and larger cos-
mos these actions generate. Far from being simply tools for
achieving human purposes, organizations can act at least
somewhat independently of human intentions. And not al-
ways to our benefit.
planning in lieu of market economies inevitably resulted in
a new ‘serfdom.” A similar dynamic arises within the cap-
italist variant of a market economy, where all values are
subordinated to profit and price signals have become price
commands, creating a “systemic collectivism.” Organiza-
tions adapting to this environment seek to buffer them-
selves from uncertainty by changing rules and increasing
control over resources, including human beings. As a con-
sequence, a new serfdom is arising. The cause arises from
the central tension within all free societies/ The organiza-
tions people create, Hayek’s taxis, have interests at odds
with the spontaneous orders, cosmos, that arise within such
societies. If they possess the power, organizations will seek
to control them.
Central to the argument I will make is how language both empowers us and to some degree separates us from direct experience of the other-than-human world. Western languages are particularly prone to reinforcing this separation. Equally central will be a discussion of how media of communication rooted in language further distances us from direct encounter. Also important will be work in contemporary biology and ecology exploring how deeply interconnected all life forms are. The traditional Western idea of individuals, be they plants and animals or human beings, are ultimately irreducibly distinct from their environment has been shown to be mistaken. Individuals have been shown to be made up of simpler individuals who, in relationship with one another, enable emergent qualities to arise at ever greater levels of complexity. Further, while genuinely individual, they cannot be understood without reference to relationships outside what are normally considered individual boundaries.
By seeking the foundations of morality and other values in theology, reason, or will, many moderns are blinded to the fact values supporting morality and beauty exist immanently within the natural world. There is no need to import them from elsewhere. By way of conclusion, I reverse direction and describe one method available to the reader how a ‘remembering’ can come about experientially. This remembering will reconnect with an indigenous and sometimes shamanic perception of the world as alive and connected.
I will offer a different analysis of philanthropy, one that by no means rejects the great merit of actions such as these, but pointing towards a larger, more liberal vision of philanthropy and its place in our world today. In the process I hope to demonstrate philanthropy’s under appreciated potential in promoting liberty, equality, environmental sustainability, and even democracy.
threatened by market competition. They frequently ally to subordinate spontaneous order processes within their respective systems to the most powerful organizations within them. The result is that a democratic spontaneous order can gradually be transformed into a state. This transformation is of more than scholarly interest because, among other things, it increases the likelihood of war.
taneous and constructed orders is one of the most important
insights in social science. Many of us have spent years ex-
ploring, expanding, and deepening this distinction, mostly
with regard to spontaneous orders. Constructed orders have
been far less explored from this perspective though they are
often analyzed from others. Within Hayekian circles they
are usually treated simply as human tools or machines, rely-
ing on human knowledge and intent to do what they were
constructed to do. When that knowledge is lacking they fail.
Without in any sense denigrating the important work done
on spontaneous orders and cosmos, this neglect is unfortu-
nate.
Hayek generally included taxis with simple phenomena
that can be understood linearly and reductively, contrasted
to complex phenomena which cannot, and about which
only what he called “pattern predictions” could be made. To
be sure, instrumental organizations start off as simple phe-
nomena, but key elements are people, who are not simple. If
organizations persist for long important emergent character-
istics of their own arise. Individuals are not independent of
their organizational environment nor are organizations sim-
ply tools serving human purposes.
In this sense organizations are not simply constructions as
organizations can develop emergent qualities independently
of their creators’ intentions. They possess a degree of inde-
pendence from their creators and members. Far from being
simply tools for achieving human purposes, it often seems as
if organizations are acting at least somewhat independently
of human intentions.
Modern biology offers additional insights on how such
collective entities are human creations that can reverse their
relation to human action, making human beings their tools
and resources. Organizations can actively shape their envi-
ronment to some degree independently of their creators’ in-
tentions.
I develop this argument beginning with the puzzle that
members of organizations frequently act differently and have
different values than before they joined. Analyzing this clari-
fies organizations’ emergent capacity to become somewhat
independent actors in the human world, adapting on their
own terms to the spontaneous order in which they exist.
We live in a world shaped at every level by organizations.
Nearly all of us spend our working lives within them. They
shape our politics, our religions, and many of our social ac-
tivities. In many cases they are the intermediaries between
human actions and the spontaneous orders and larger cos-
mos these actions generate. Far from being simply tools for
achieving human purposes, organizations can act at least
somewhat independently of human intentions. And not al-
ways to our benefit.
planning in lieu of market economies inevitably resulted in
a new ‘serfdom.” A similar dynamic arises within the cap-
italist variant of a market economy, where all values are
subordinated to profit and price signals have become price
commands, creating a “systemic collectivism.” Organiza-
tions adapting to this environment seek to buffer them-
selves from uncertainty by changing rules and increasing
control over resources, including human beings. As a con-
sequence, a new serfdom is arising. The cause arises from
the central tension within all free societies/ The organiza-
tions people create, Hayek’s taxis, have interests at odds
with the spontaneous orders, cosmos, that arise within such
societies. If they possess the power, organizations will seek
to control them.