Smith is arguing against a kind of ancient philosophical prejudice that saw balance, continuity, equilibrium as the signs of a well-ordered commonweal — that thought of the good life as one free from the anxiety of change.
This experience, basic to existential thought, contrasts most sharply with the ancient notion of a kosmos in which human beings have a well-ordered place, and it connects existential thought tightly to the modern experience of a meaningless universe.
(The real numbers are not well-ordered in their usual order: just consider an open interval. Meanwhile, N is the simplest infinite well-ordered set).
Ordinal numbers are then introduced as the order types of well-ordered sets.
Cantor was so committed to this viewpoint, that he presented the further hypothesis that every set can be well-ordered as "a fundamental and momentous law of thought".
The beauty of well-ordered societies, of "wisdom…consisting in the united tendency of thoughts, ideas, and particular volitions to one general purpose," of the natural fitness of actions and circumstances (having made a promise, for example, and keeping it), "of a building, of a flower, or of the rainbow" are examples (True Virtue, 1765; Edwards 1957–, vol. 8, 561 62).
He couldn't sleep at night, thinking about his well-ordered, 16-year career at Intel.
Also, every well-ordered set is isomorphic to a unique ordinal, called its order-type.
On this view, UI is a shared investment in a well-ordered society, not just a lifeline for jobless families.
Generally, English teams are less well-ordered.
And mine wasn't too well-ordered to begin with.
