Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/31838
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
Papers on Economics and Evolution No. 0622
Publisher: 
Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
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.
Subjects: 
Redundancy Thesis
rationality anomaly
Rationality-qua-Trait Thesis
incoherence problem
Rationality-qua-Method
JEL: 
D0
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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