Infrasocial Power by Lorenzo Infantino

Infrasocial Power by Lorenzo Infantino

Author:Lorenzo Infantino
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030450816
Publisher: Springer International Publishing


Mandeville , Hume and Smith thus agree in separating facts from values. This is a position known as Hume’s law (according to which it is not logically possible to derive prescriptive statements from descriptive ones), but in fact it characterises the theories of all three of these thinkers. It follows from that law that, since there is no science of Good and Evil, there can be no truth which is embodied in a Legislator or which is manifest to all. And it follows that no belief, whether religious or philosophical, can be imposed on the strength of “superior” self-evident knowledge. This erects an unbreachable defensive barrier for freedom of conscience. It is the basis on which individuals who subscribe to different religious and philosophical conceptions of the world can live together collectively. This is why Passerin d’Entrèves wrote that “the logical leap from fact to value – Hume’s law – is the main barrier with which, in the perspective of modern man, the doctrine of natural law collides”.148

B. The Dispersal of Knowledge

Smith opened up a second front of “attack”. He objected that “every individual […], in is local situation, judge much better that any statesman or lawgiver can do for him”.149 And “the statesman, who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it”.150 This is the theorem of dispersed knowledge. And Hayek, who in the twentieth century made it the basis of his extensive work, articulated it in the following terms: “scientific knowledge is not the sum of all knowledge […], there beyond question is a body of very important but unorganized knowledge which cannot possibly be called scientific in the sense of knowledge of general rules: the knowledge of the particular circumstances of time and space. It is with respect to this that practically every individual has some advantage over all others because he possess unique information of which beneficial use might be made, but of which use can be made only if the decisions depending on it are left to him or are made with his active co-operation”.151



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