Chapter 16 Supplement B The Complexity of Human Interaction Problems

B Complexity of Human Interaction Problems Although natural scientists sometimes seem reluctant to acknowledge the greater complexity of the problems of human intercourse, this fact itself was seen by more than one person over a hundred years ago.James Clerk Maxwell wrote in 1877 that the word "natural science" is often "used in a somewhat restricted manner to those branches of science which deal with phenomena of the simplest and most abstract More complex phenomena, such as those observed in living organisms, were rejected".Luis Alvarez, a recent Nobel laureate in physics, emphasized that "Physics is actually the simplest of all sciences...but in far more complex systems, such as those in a developing country like India, population, no one has yet determined the best way of changing the status quo" (1968).

As we move into these complex phenomena, the mechanistic methods and patterns in simple causal explanations become less and less applicable.Specifically, the key phenomenon that determines the structure of many highly complex human interactions, that is, economic value or price, cannot be explained by simple causal or "universal" theories, but by the joint action of a large number of independent factors. explanations, and the number of these factors is so great that we can hardly think of anyone who can observe or manipulate them. Only the "marginal revolution" of the 1870s offered a satisfactory explanation of the market process, which Adam Smith had long ago illustrated with his "invisible hand" metaphor.Although still figurative and imperfect, it is the first scientific explanation of this spontaneous process of order.On the contrary, the inability of the Mills to understand the determinants of market value in any other way than to make causal judgments based on a few events that occurred in the past, hinders them, as is the case with many modern "natural scientists" An understanding of self-regulating market processes.Awareness of the basic truths of marginal utility theory was further delayed by the dominant influence on Ricardo by James Mill and by the writings of Karl Marx himself.Attempts to find a single causal explanation in these areas (even more procrastinated in England, owing to the decisive influence of Alfred Marshall and his school), have continued to this day.

In this matter, John Muller probably played the most important role.He brought himself under the influence of socialism early on, and because of this prejudice he gained enormous popularity among "progressive" intellectuals, establishing a reputation as a leader of liberalism and a "saint of rationalism."The number of intellectuals who were led to socialism by him probably cannot be compared with any other person: the Fabian Society was originally composed of a group of his followers. Mill's dogmatic conviction that "in the law of value there is nothing left to be clarified by present or future authors" (1848/1965, Collected Works: III, 456) blocked him. The path to understanding price guidance.This belief leads him to believe that "the reflection of value can only concern (the distribution of wealth)", not its production (ibid., 455).Mill's assumption that only mechanistically causal processes arising from a small number of observable events in the past is a plausible explanation by the standards of natural science blinds him to the function of prices.Because Mill's assumptions have been in effect for a long time, when the "marginal revolution" comes 20 years later, it has an explosive effect.

It should be mentioned here, however, that six years after the publication of Mill's textbook, H.Ghosn, an almost entirely neglected thinker who had foreseen the emergence of the doctrine of marginal utility, recognized the dependence of mass production on price guidance, and emphasized that "it is only by establishing the institution of private property that one can find Criteria for determining the optimal yield of each commodity. ...the protection of private property to the greatest extent possible is certainly the most important necessary condition for the continuation of human society" (1854/1983: 254-255).

Although Muller's book has done serious harm, we should probably forgive him for being so enamored with the woman who would become his wife—that, in his view, with her death, "the country lost its most of great mind", she - in his words - "has a noble public purpose, consistent as the ultimate goal of perfect distributive justice, which implies a state of society which is entirely communistic in spirit and practice ” (1965, Collected Works: XV, 601; see also Hayek, 1951). Whatever Mill's influence may have been, Marxist economics today still seeks to explain highly complex communicative orders as mechanistic phenomena from a single causal perspective, rather than a system that makes it possible for us to explain highly complex phenomena. prototype of the self-regulatory process.It should be mentioned, however, that, as Joachim Reger (in his introduction to the Spanish translation of Böhm-Bawerk's essay on Marx's theory of exploitation, 1976) points out, Marx, after studying Jevons and After Menger's work, further study of capital seems to have been abandoned altogether.If so, his followers are obviously less intelligent than himself.