ABSTRACT
The fundamental condition from which any intelligent discussion of the order of all social activities should start is the constitutional and irremediable ignorance both of the acting persons and of the scientist studying this order, of the multiplicity of particular, concrete facts which enter this order of human activities because they are known to some of its members. The achievement of human purposes is possible only because we recognise the world we live in as orderly. Two distinct kinds of rules or norms correspond respectively to cosmos or taxis which the elements must obey in order that the corresponding kind of order be formed. The reason why an organisation must to some extent rely on rules and not be directed by particular commands only also explains why a spontaneous order can achieve results which organisations cannot.
