Peter Stillman writes:
>>But I kind of think it would be also interesting to study the vast
hierarchical command order embedded in the modern economy.<<
The key fact from the perspective of science here is that order
in the human domain which does not come directly from the hand of
a single commander or designer creates a special sort of problem
to be explained -- a problem comparable in significant ways to the
problem of undesigned order addressed by Charles Darwin. Both
Darwin and Hayek present a preceived design problem with a bottom-up
causal explanation, rather than a "top down" designer explanation.
This this problem-explanation nexus is Hayek's central point, which
he discusses in a variety of different places in a variety of different
ways.
To be clear, Hayek and "Hayekians" have no objection to to the study of
command structures or pre-designed "intended orders". These simply presents
a problem of a different scientific order than does the problem of the
general order of coordinated plans perceivable in the global market economy.
Greg Ransom