But the ultimate result is the reductio ad absurdum. Our specialization has given us lots of pieces but no overall pattern into which to fit the pieces together. Nature is pure mechanism and has no function except to be exploited. Material progress is all that matters. Quantity of things is more important than quality of life.
Efficiency is the prime virtue.
Atomistic individuals are the base of civilization, and social community is an aberration. All persons are rational, and rationality is defined in terms of single-minded pursuit of wealth. Anything that can't be quantified is irrelevant. Economists are, of course, human beings, and no human being thinking as an individual, could possibly believe all these things. Value judgments are not facts That quotation brings me to the most important and damaging point of all.