RUSTAM ROMANIUC wrote:
>Mathew,
>
>Hayek never denied that he were influenced concerning spontaneous 
>order but not by Polanyi. He has always claimed that his explanation 
>of the social system continues a long tradition. Hayek refers to the 
>original Spanish schoolmen as the founders of the theory of 
>spontaneous order and he also recognize a broad contribution to 
>Scottish philosophers Smith, Hume  with Smith's commonly known 
>"invisible hand", here we have a spontaneous order which is the 
>outcome of the actions of individuals. Whereas Hayek developed this 
>idea by considering spontaneous order the outcome of evolutionary institutions.
>
>Rustam Romaniuc




Moreover, I think Hayek -- who was a careful student of J. S. Mill -- 
may well have got the actual phrase from the latter. In /Three Essays 
on Religion/ Mill writes of  'the spontaneous order of Nature', that 
which results from general equilibrium in a defined habitat of 
coexisting populations of different species. It may be interesting to 
note that Mill himself did not regard such spontaneous order as 
optimal. He thought humans could improve on it.

Anthony Waterman