Nesta:
I surely agree that talk of "the" market is little more than
mystification. I certainly intended no theory of progress either. I
would rather talk about markets than the "the" market and leave it open
to empirical investigation to determine what effects they have in
different contexts. I do maintain that markets have effects on behavior,
and that those effects are intelligible.
Tracing the effects of markets is, to be sure, complicated by the fact
that we have beliefs about them and our attribution of potencies to them
(reification if you will) affects our behavior.
I agree that Hayek overestimates the quality of information that markets
provide, and I tend to favor more intervention than he would allow.
Nevertheless he has a point. People do not independently decide to show
up for work, nor are they simply instructed to appear and perform
functions by a central planner. Their actions are the product of
independent decisions (e.g., investment) that are coordinated and not
centrally planned. Sometimes this is a good way to get things done;
sometimes not. To decide, we have to look at the actual market
arrangements we wish to critique. It requires the kind of localized
knowledge that Foucault stressed departing substantially from the
Enlightenment faith that motivated Hayek.
I surely agree that talk of "the" market is little more than
mystification. I certainly intended no theory of progress either. I
would rather talk about markets than the "the" market and leave it open
to empirical investigation to determine what effects they have in
different contexts. I do maintain that markets have effects on behavior,
and that those effects are intelligible.
Tracing the effects of markets is, to be sure, complicated by the fact
that we have beliefs about them and our attribution of potencies to them
(reification if you will) affects our behavior.
I agree that Hayek overestimates the quality of information that markets
provide, and I tend to favor more intervention than he would allow.
Nevertheless he has a point. People do not independently decide to show
up for work, nor are they simply instructed to appear and perform
functions by a central planner. Their actions are the product of
independent decisions (e.g., investment) that are coordinated and not
centrally planned. Sometimes this is a good way to get things done;
sometimes not. To decide, we have to look at the actual market
arrangements we wish to critique. It requires the kind of localized
knowledge that Foucault stressed departing substantially from the
Enlightenment faith that motivated Hayek.