Hayek's "spontaneous order" was borrowed from or influenced by 
Michael Polanyi, the physical chemist and philosopher of science.  At 
the University of Manchester in the 1930s, Polanyi was engaged in 
conversations with his colleague and friend, the economist Adolph 
Lowe, who during the same period published several articles and books 
using the related notion, "spontaneous conformity," for example in 
The Price of Liberty (Hogarth Press, 1937).  See my "Must Spontaneous 
Order Be Unintended?" in H.S. Jensen, L.M. Richter, and M. T. Vendelo 
(eds.): The Evolution of Scientific Knowledge, Cheltenham, U.K.: 
Edward Elgar, 2003, and the references therein. Some of the issues 
that have come up in the discussion are addressed there.


Mathew Forstater