Invisible-Hand Explanations

Invisible-hand explanations suggest that many social practices are a product of human action, but not human design. In coming to terms with such explanations, it is essential to distinguish between explanations of the emergence of practices and explanations of the persistence of practices. The kind of invisible-hand explanation that accounts for the emergence of practices might turn out to be altogether different from the kind that accounts for their persistence. The emergence of practices is often best explained by aggregating explanations: Diverse and dispersed action by numerous people might produce some kind of pattern, even if they did not foresee it or intend to bring it about. By contrast, practices often persist because of evolutionary explanations. They survive some sort of competition. Survival value may have nothing to do with the emergence of a practice in the first place.

Action (physics) · Biology · Competition (biology) · Epistemology · Genealogy · Nothing · Persistence (discontinuity) · sort · Computer Science · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · History · Philosophy