Behind the Worldly Philosophy Summary and Analysis

Most of the book as been concerned with presenting the worldly philosopher's theories on an individual basis. The last chapter is concerned with them in a collective sense. How successful were they in determining how the role of order and meaning functions within the context of social history? They all tried to predict trends into the future. Many of these so-called predictions take the form of carrying a logical statement to its conclusion. They do not have sections where they say "I predict ...." It is probably a little more precise to say that they uncover trends which take place. This occurs because of regularities in the behavior of individuals in society. These are things like the propensities to save and spend. Also, it is believed that economic behavior causes the influence for change in society...