Charles Darwin meets Amoeba economicus: why natural selection cannot explain rationality

Arbeitspapier

Advocates of natural selection usually regard rationality as redundant, i.e., as a mere linguistic device to describe natural selection. But this "Redundancy Thesis" faces the anomaly that rationality differs from natural selection. One solution is to conceive rationality as a trait selected by the neo-Darwinian mechanism of natural selection as . But this "Rationality-qua-Trait Thesis" faces a problem as well: Following neo-Darwinism, one cannot classify one allele of, e.g., eyesight as better than another without reference to constraints - while one can classify rationality as better than irrationality irrespective of constraints. Therefore, natural selection cannot be a trait. This leads us to the only solution: Rationality is actually a method that cannot be reduced to a trait. This "Rationality-qua-Method Thesis" lays the ground for alternative, developmental views of evolution.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Papers on Economics and Evolution ; No. 0622

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft
• Subject: Redundancy Thesis ; rationality anomaly ; Rationality-qua-Trait Thesis ; incoherence problem ; Rationality-qua-Method

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Khalil, Elias L.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Max Planck Institute of Economics
• (where): Jena
• (when): 2006

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/31838
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET