GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

774
BTHXCS AND POLITICS: THE MODERNS
which was the exact contrary of what each individual had
willed } was the direct outcome of their combined willing.
Similarly, if there is a rumour that a bank is in difficulties,
depositors will be anxious to withdraw their money* As
a consequence, there will be a run on the bank and the
bank will fail. This result, which nobody wants, is never-
theless due to what everybody has individually willed.
Generalizing from these illustrations, we may say that
although the economic conditions ofsociety are the accumulated
results of individual action, they are not willed by
individuals. Thus the apparent "blindness" of economic
forces arises from the fact that the ultimate outcome of the
action of individuals is outside the control of any individual.
In sum, the effects of an individual's action extend beyond
his immediate intention, his will and knowledge being
more limited than his effective environment
Necessity
for Political Action. It is because of this
fact, because the collective social conditions which any
particular action will tend to create are hidden from its
author, because in fact economic action is "blind , that
political action becomes necessary, necessary, that is to
say, to check the blind results of economic action.
This need for check will always remain. Indeed, in
proportion as the ends of human beings are increasingly
set by economic considerations, in proportion as their
actions are increasingly determined by economic motives,
and less by habit and custom, the checking and limiting
function of the State will become increasingly important.
It is only in highly developed societies that the motives
of the actions of groups of individuals are predominantly
"economic", a fact which renders the economic inter*
pretation of history largely inapplicable to the societies
of antiquity, which were bated mainly on habit and custom.
Defects of Economk Individualism. The social legislation
passed in England at the end of the nineteenth and
beginning of the twentieth centuries affords a good