The Collective Construction of Morality and the Boundary of Spontaneous Order: From Historical Cycles to Institutional Transition in the Nuclear Age Brief Synopsis I. The Point of Departure: The Internal Blind Spot in Hayek’s Theory This paper begins by identifying a fundamental lacuna in Hayek’s theory of spontaneous order: while it treats individual competition—rooted in the instinct of envy—as the sole endogenous driver of social development, it fails to demonstrate how capital concentration can be resolved peacefully. Before the advent of nuclear weapons, war served as the ultimate closure mechanism of competition—after victory and defeat were decided, resources were forcibly redistributed, and history moved in cycles of “peaceful accumulation → capital concentration → war reset.” However, the nuclear age has stripped war of its final adjudicative function; once escalation leads to mutual annihilation rather than a clear outcome, competition can no longer select winners, and the quasi‑truth foundation upon which spontaneous order rested collapses. II. A Genetic Inquiry into Morality: From Instinct to Construction The paper’s central contribution lies in its reconceptualization of the origin of morality. Morality is neither a Kantian a priori imperative nor a divinely revealed norm, but rather a set of subjectively constructed rules formed by human collectives under survival pressure through selective appropriation of two innate instincts—empathy and envy. Morality is always a bounded instrument of internal cohesion; it does not apply externally. This single insight dissolves a host of traditional moral paradoxes—the Chinese fable of “Mr. Dongguo and the Wolf,” the Western tale of “The Farmer and the Viper,” the inconsistency of sympathizing with slaughtered animals while eating meat with ease, and the dilemma that honesty toward an enemy constitutes disloyalty to one’s own group—while simultaneously explaining why different civilisations uphold divergent moral standards. III. The Boundary of Spontaneous Order and Institutional Transition in the Nuclear Age Having clarified the constructed nature of morality, the paper goes on to argue that pure spontaneous order has never existed in human history; society has always been a unity of opposites between constructed institutions and spontaneous evolution. The nuclear age forces constructed order to transform from a post‑crisis emergency measure into a permanent institutional guardrail. The Symbiotic Point System is proposed as the engineering blueprint for this transition: through a mirror‑balancing mechanism between currency and points, it translates the collective interest of all humanity from a soft normative appeal into a precisely calculable survival constraint that enters into each individual’s daily decision‑making. IV. The Geometry of Civilisation: The Euler’s‑Formula Spiral Finally, the paper elevates the institutional design into a mathematical‑philosophical model: the real axis (internal stock circulation) rotates stably without expanding, while the imaginary axis (external innovation and technological progress) extends continuously along the temporal dimension. The age‑old iron law of “concentration → collapse → war → reset” is replaced by a civilisational spiral that “rotates without expansion, inherits without hoarding, and advances without regression.” Core Position Statement: On “Critiquing Hayek” and “Valuing Spontaneous Agency” The preceding series of theoretical examinations of Hayek’s spontaneous order should by no means be read as a wholesale rejection or attack. Rather, they constitute a necessary boundary‑demarcation exercise—delineating the limits of Hayek’s theory under the conditions of the nuclear age and clearing away the logical gaps left by his historical context. On the contrary, Hayek’s profound insights remain deeply embedded in the very foundations of this theoretical framework: · Respect for dispersed knowledge – no central planner can substitute for the local, context‑specific judgments of individuals;· Faith in price signals – money retains its full function as a medium of circulation and carrier of information, and is left completely unconstrained in the sphere of external value creation;· Reverence for spontaneous agency – the individual instincts of envy and greed are consistently regarded as the most powerful engine of civilisation. The entire elegance of the Symbiotic Point System lies precisely in its “downward compatibility” with this selfish drive—it neither seeks to eliminate nor suppress it. The failure of traditional constructivism—whether in the form of central planning or empty moral exhortation—lies in its opposition to human nature, attempting to replace “selfishness” with “nobility.” The Symbiotic Point System does something altogether different: it does not alter human nature; it only alters the parametric environment within which human nature calculates. It compiles the macro‑social goal of “balancing collective interests” into a set of precise, perceptible micro‑constraints that each individual must face in everyday economic choices: · Hoarding money → points are mirror‑deducted → expected future entitlements decline automatically;· Contributing labour / engaging in external innovation → points accumulate positively → access to public goods improves. Throughout this process, the individual never abandons his nature of “calculating for himself.” He still pursues his own interest maximisation—only the functional expression of “interest” has been reprogrammed by the institutional design, such that the mathematical optimum of “self‑interest” happens to coincide with the global optimum of “collective survival.” In one sentence: This is not a betrayal of Hayek, but a trans‑dimensional elevation of Hayek. Hayek gave us the full truth about how the “invisible hand” coordinates dispersed knowledge. What the nuclear age demands, however, is an intelligent vehicle that retains the full horsepower of that engine while being equipped with an anti‑fall algorithm. The Symbiotic Point System is the construction blueprint for that vehicle—a system in which, while calculating his own points, the individual inevitably ends up saving the world at the same time.
Pige Li (Wed,) studied this question.