Selective evolution is the source of all order. There are two routes to ultrasociality: the social insect route (through biological evolution) and the human route.
Outline of F. A. Hayeks account of the rise of civilization. (Gary Becker’s economic approach and Hayek’s evolutionary approach are seen as complementary.) Cultural evolution selects rules via group selection. The development of a civilized order was made possible through the emergence of a system of abstract rules which, in the public sphere, replaced the rule system that fits the tribal horde. The abstract norm system, in particular the market order, made possible the extended order that no longer requires a common public aim, but can tolerate plurality and allows the individuals to pursue different ends. The notion of a spontaneously formed complex order is a unifying thread in Hayek’s economic, political and legal thought. In all these domains, the key idea of the spontaneous-order thesis is that self-organizing and self-replicating structures arise without even the possibility of design. To simulate the efficiency of the market order by central planning is impossible for epistemic reasons. The norm system underlying the extended order of a free society was not designed, not invented, and only retrospectively can we recognize it as the condition for retaining at least what we have got.
Some problems are raised, e. g., the question of whether the concept of a spontaneous order is value-free, the question of how to combine traditionalism with the demand for rational critical scrutiny, appraising whether our inherited institutions do, indeed, comply with the requirements of a (classical) liberal order.
Socialism is essentially an attempt to return to the rule system that fits the tribal horde; constructivism tends towards totalitarianism.
