It is at least closely related to the doctrine of the " economic interpretation ", the falsity of which has received brief consideration previously.
The “economic interpretation” here is short-hand not only for Marxist, but for materialist interpretations more generally, which, according to FH Knight, hold not only that all social, cultural, and political relations should be interpreted through the lens of economics, but that they also have an economic solution. What interests us in Mr. Knight’s foregrounding of the “economic interpretation” is the specific weight he places on it. Human societies inevitably and invariably are accompanied by sometimes violent conflict. Removing economic occasions for conflict, according to Knight, does not remove conflict. It follows that eo ipso economic reform will not lead to an end of conflict. Conflict comes to an end, rather, by the imposition of law (see FH Knight, “Ethics and Economic Reform. I. The Ethics of Liberalism,” Economica, New Series, Vol. 6, No. 21 (Feb., 1939), pp. 1-29).