Online Library of Liberty - The Tradition of Spontaneous Order: A Bibliographical Essay by Norman Barry (oll.libertyfund.org)
- Highlight Loc. 373-80 | Added on Thursday, January 05, 2012, 10:58 AM
In The Theory of Moral Sentiments he argues fiercely against that 'spirit of system' of the rationalist philosophers which arrogantly presupposes that the happiness of human beings can be arranged, independently of experience, according to a predetermined plan. He says that rationalists forget that "in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon it."[38] In a number of passages in The Wealth of Nations he argues that the centralized legislator will not have the knowledge at his disposal that individuals have of their 'local situations' and it is this which is maximized in their pursuit of natural liberty. That 'invisible hand' that co-ordinates human action under the system of natural liberty is as much a metaphor to describe how a society responds to the problem of ignorance as it is a metaphor to explain how the public good can be a product of self-regarding action.
