ABSTRACT
We have now reached a point where we can draw together the various elements that typify the spontaneous order approach to political theory. Throughout our examination of the Scots’ and the Moderns’ discussions of the nature and origins of the core social institutions we have seen how they deploy a series of concepts that constitute a particular explanatory approach to the study of social theory. Spontaneous order theorists believe that they are engaged in a descriptive, scientific project that aims at an accurate understanding of the social world. The spontaneous order liberals set out to explain the nature of the social world, and from that explanation they seek to draw conclusions about the most effective means of securing what they believe to be a group of universal human goals. These goals are not laid down in the language of moral values, but rather are drawn from an examination of the factors that universally motivate human action. Thus, the spontaneous order theorists argue, all humans seek to secure subsistence and material comfort. As a result social systems that secure these goals can be regarded as successful.
