Evolution and Rationality
Decisions, Co-operation and Strategic Behaviour

This volume explores from several viewpoints the relationship between Darwinian evolution and the theory of rational choice.

Samir Okasha (Edited by), Ken Binmore (Edited by)

9781107416840, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 June 2014

292 pages, 20 b/w illus. 3 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.4 kg

'Evolution and Rationality is ideal for getting up to speed on the issues at the overlap of economic rationality and evolutionary theory.' Ryan Muldoon, Journal of Economics and Philosophy

This volume explores from multiple perspectives the subtle and interesting relationship between the theory of rational choice and Darwinian evolution. In rational choice theory, agents are assumed to make choices that maximize their utility; in evolution, natural selection 'chooses' between phenotypes according to the criterion of fitness maximization. So there is a parallel between utility in rational choice theory and fitness in Darwinian theory. This conceptual link between fitness and utility is mirrored by the interesting parallels between formal models of evolution and rational choice. The essays in this volume, by leading philosophers, economists, biologists and psychologists, explore the connection between evolution and rational choice in a number of different contexts, including choice under uncertainty, strategic decision making and pro-social behaviour. They will be of interest to students and researchers in philosophy of science, evolutionary biology, economics and psychology.

Editors introduction
1. Towards a Darwinian theory of strategic decision-making: games and the biological roots of behaviour Peter Hammerstein
2. What do humans maximize? Claire El Mouden, Maxwell Burton-Chellew, Andy Gardner and Stuart West
3. Natural selection and rational decisions Alasdair Houston
4. Evolution, dynamics and rationality: the limits of ESS methodology Simon Huttegger and Kevin Zollman
5. Are rational actor models 'rational' outside small worlds? Henry Brighton and Gerd Gigerenzer
6. Pull, push or both? Indirect evolution in economics and beyond Siegfried Berninghaus, Werner Güth and Hartmut Kliemt
7. Schelling formalized: strategic choices of non-rational behaviour David H. Wolpert and Julian Jamison
8. Human cooperation and reciprocity Jack Vromen
9. Team reasoning, framing and cooperation Natalie Gold
10. An evolutionary perspective on the unification of the behavioural sciences Herbert Gintis
11. From fitness to utility Kim Sterelny.

Subject Areas: Evolution [PSAJ], Philosophy of science [PDA], Philosophy [HP]