Preview

Voprosy Ekonomiki

Advanced search
Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

The theory of cultural evolution by F. A. Hayek and evolutionary psychology (Part two)

https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2024-7-25-52

Abstract

The paper highlights the theory of cultural evolution by F. A. Hayek, which in retrospect appears as a complex and deep system, in many respects anticipating the ideas of modern evolutionary psychology. The second part dicusses its key element — the idea of group selection, which Hayek used to explain why, in the long-run evolutionary perspective, more efficient social orders capable of providing a higher living standard and supporting a larger population are more likely to survive. This became grounds for his accusations of shifting onto the position of methodological holism. However, under closer examination group selection and methodological individualism turn out to be quite compatible, appearing in Hayek’s understanding as two aspects of a unite explanatory scheme.

About the Author

R. I. Kapeliushnikov
Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations, RAS; HSE University
Russian Federation

Rostislav I. Kapeliushnikov

Moscow



References

1. Dawkins R. (2022). The selfish gene. Moscow: Corpus. (In Russian).

2. Palmer J., Palmer L. (2007). The ultimate origins of human behavior. St. Petersburg: Prime-Evroznak. (In Russian).

3. Hayek F. von (1992). The fatal conceit: The errors of socialism. Moscow: Novosti. (In Russian).

4. Hayek F. von. (2006). Law, legislation and liberty. A new statement of the liberal principles of justice and political economy. Moscow: Navigator. (In Russian).

5. Hayek F. von. (2018). The constitution of liberty. Moscow: Novoe Izdatelststvo. (In Russian).

6. Hayek F. von (2020). Notes on the evolution of systems of rules of conduct. In: The market and other orders. Moscow: Intermediator, pp. 335—363. (In Russian).

7. Alchian A. A. (1950). Uncertainty, evolution and economic theory. Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 58, No. 3, pp. 15—36. https://doi.org/10.1086/256940

8. Alchian A. A., Demsetz H. (1972). Production, information costs, and economic organization. American Economic Review, Vol. 62, No. 5, pp. 777—795.

9. Andreozzi L. (2005). Hayek reads the literature on the emergence of norms. Constitutional Political Economy, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 227—247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10602-005-2832-3

10. Boettke P. J. (2018). F. A. Hayek: Economics, political economy and social philosophy. London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41160-0

11. Boyd R., Richerson P. (2005). The origin and evolution of culture. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195165241.001.0001

12. Cosmides L., Tooby J. (1997). Evolutionary psychology: A primer. Santa Barbara: Center for Evolutionary Psychology, University of California.

13. Gaus G. (2006). The evolution of society and mind: Hayek’s system of ideas. In: E. Feser (ed.). The Cambridge companion to Hayek. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 232—258. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521849772.013

14. Henrich J. (2004). Cultural group selection, coevolutionary processes and large-scale cooperation. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol. 53, No. 1, pp. 3—35. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-2681(03)00094-5

15. Hodgson G. M. (1991). Hayek’s theory of cultural evolution: An evaluation in light of Vanberg’s critique. Economics and Philosophy, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 67—82. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266267100000912

16. Koppl R. (2005). Economics evolving: An introduction to the volume. In: R. Koppl (ed.). Evolutionary psychology and economic theory. Amsterdam: Emerald Group Publishing, pp. 1—16. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1529-2134(04)07001-2

17. Langlois R. N. (1986). Rationality, institutions, and explanation. In: R. N. Langlois (ed.). Economics as a process: Essays in the New Institutional Economics. New York: Cambridge University Press.

18. Langlois R. N. (2004). Comment on “Group selection and methodological individualism: Compatible and complementary” by Douglas Glen Whitman. In: R. Koppl (ed.). Evolutionary psychology and economic theory. Leeds: Emerald Group Publishing, pp. 261—266. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1529-2134(04)07012-7

19. Marciano A. (2009). Why Hayek is a Darwinian (after all)? Hayek and Darwin on social evolution. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol. 71, No. 1, pp. 52—61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2007.04.005

20. Rubin P. H., Gick E. (2004). Hayek and modern evolutionary theory. In: R. Koppl (ed.). Evolutionary psychology and economic theory. Leeds: Emerald Group Publishing, pp. 79—100. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1529-2134(04)07005-X

21. Schaefer A. (2021). Hayek’s twin ideas: Reconciling methodological individualism and group selection. Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 45, No. 6, pp. 1209—1225. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/beab036

22. Smith E. A. (1994). Semantics, theory, and methodological individualism in the groupselection controversy. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 636—637. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00036414

23. Trivers R. L. (1971). The evolution of reciprocal altruism. Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 35—57. https://doi.org/10.1086/406755

24. Vanberg V. V. (1986). Spontaneous market order and social rules: A critique of F. A. Hayek’s theory of cultural evolution. Economics and Philosophy, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 75—100. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266267100000808

25. Whitman D. G. (1998). Hayek contra Pangloss on evolutionary systems. Constitutional Political Economy, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 45—66. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009058615310

26. Whitman D. G. (2004). Group selection and methodological individualism: Compatible and complementary. In: R. Koppl (ed.). Evolutionary psychology and economic theory. Leeds: Emerald Group Publishing, pp. 221—250. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1529-2134(04)07010-3

27. Williams G. (1966). Adaptation and natural selection. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

28. Wilson D. S. (1975). A theory of group selection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 72, No. 1, pp. 143—146. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.72.1.143

29. Wilson D. S., Wilson E. O. (2007). Rethinking the theoretical foundations of sociobiology. Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 82, No. 4, pp. 327—348. https://doi.org/10.1086/522809

30. Zywicki T. (2004). Reconciling group selection and methodological individualism. In: R. Koppl (ed.). Evolutionary psychology and economic theory. Leeds: Emerald Group Publishing, pp. 267—77. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1529-2134(04)07013-9


Review

For citations:


Kapeliushnikov R.I. The theory of cultural evolution by F. A. Hayek and evolutionary psychology (Part two). Voprosy Ekonomiki. 2024;(7):25-52. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2024-7-25-52

Views: 409


ISSN 0042-8736 (Print)