Author: Ernst Fehr
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Altruism
Languages : en
Pages : 48
Book Description
Is Strong Reciprocity a Maladaption?
Author: Ernst Fehr
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Altruism
Languages : en
Pages : 48
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Altruism
Languages : en
Pages : 48
Book Description
Following the Rules
Author: Joseph Heath
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199888108
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
For centuries, philosophers have been puzzled by the fact that people often respect moral obligations as a matter of principle, setting aside considerations of self-interest. In more recent years, social scientists have been puzzled by the more general phenomenon of rule-following, the fact that people often abide by social norms even when doing so produces undesirable consequences. Experimental game theorists have demonstrated conclusively that the old-fashioned picture of "economic man," constantly reoptimizing in order to maximize utility in all circumstances, cannot provide adequate foundations for a general theory of rational action. The dominant response, however, has been a slide toward irrationalism. If people are ignoring the consequences of their actions, it is claimed, it must be because they are making some sort of a mistake. In Following the Rules, Joseph Heath attempts to reverse this trend, by showing how rule-following can be understood as an essential element of rational action. The first step involves showing how rational choice theory can be modified to incorporate deontic constraint as a feature of rational deliberation. The second involves disarming the suspicion that there is something mysterious or irrational about the psychological states underlying rule-following. According to Heath, human rationality is a by-product of the so-called "language upgrade" that we receive as a consequence of the development of specific social practices. As a result, certain constitutive features of our social environment-such as the rule-governed structure of social life-migrate inwards, and become constitutive features of our psychological faculties. This in turn explains why there is an indissoluble bond between practical rationality and deontic constraint. In the end, what Heath offers is a naturalistic, evolutionary argument in favor of the traditional Kantian view that there is an internal connection between being a rational agent and feeling the force of one's moral obligations.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199888108
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
For centuries, philosophers have been puzzled by the fact that people often respect moral obligations as a matter of principle, setting aside considerations of self-interest. In more recent years, social scientists have been puzzled by the more general phenomenon of rule-following, the fact that people often abide by social norms even when doing so produces undesirable consequences. Experimental game theorists have demonstrated conclusively that the old-fashioned picture of "economic man," constantly reoptimizing in order to maximize utility in all circumstances, cannot provide adequate foundations for a general theory of rational action. The dominant response, however, has been a slide toward irrationalism. If people are ignoring the consequences of their actions, it is claimed, it must be because they are making some sort of a mistake. In Following the Rules, Joseph Heath attempts to reverse this trend, by showing how rule-following can be understood as an essential element of rational action. The first step involves showing how rational choice theory can be modified to incorporate deontic constraint as a feature of rational deliberation. The second involves disarming the suspicion that there is something mysterious or irrational about the psychological states underlying rule-following. According to Heath, human rationality is a by-product of the so-called "language upgrade" that we receive as a consequence of the development of specific social practices. As a result, certain constitutive features of our social environment-such as the rule-governed structure of social life-migrate inwards, and become constitutive features of our psychological faculties. This in turn explains why there is an indissoluble bond between practical rationality and deontic constraint. In the end, what Heath offers is a naturalistic, evolutionary argument in favor of the traditional Kantian view that there is an internal connection between being a rational agent and feeling the force of one's moral obligations.
Maladaptation
Author: Philip G. Madgwick
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192697765
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
Charles Darwin presented the first scientific explanation of design through evolution by natural selection, where the environment furnishes individual organisms with adaptations that help them to survive and reproduce. This accessible book makes the case that natural selection can also do the exact opposite, favouring traits that directly harm an organism's ability to survive and reproduce. Such maladaptations contradict the received understanding of what natural selection 'does', but become explicable with an understanding of the genetics and ecology of evolution by natural selection. Drawing upon wide-ranging examples from across the diversity of life, the evidence for maladaptations is critically appraised to establish its possibility, reality and importance to the design of living things. A theory of maladaptation is developed, as a corrective for a long-standing error in evolutionary biology. Examples of maladaptation are evaluated to identify the challenges and successes in applying the concept to organismal traits. The deeper causes and consequences of maladaptation are discussed to understand its far-reaching impact on the evolution of life on Earth - and beyond. Overall, the book persuasively argues that maladaptation is a paragon of the changes to evolutionary theory that are needed to understand the population biology of natural selection. Maladaptation is written to be suitable for students taking courses in evolution, ecology and genetics, as well as professional researchers in these fields. Its accessible style will also appeal to a broader interdisciplinary audience, including any inquisitive reader with a general interest in science and the natural world.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192697765
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
Charles Darwin presented the first scientific explanation of design through evolution by natural selection, where the environment furnishes individual organisms with adaptations that help them to survive and reproduce. This accessible book makes the case that natural selection can also do the exact opposite, favouring traits that directly harm an organism's ability to survive and reproduce. Such maladaptations contradict the received understanding of what natural selection 'does', but become explicable with an understanding of the genetics and ecology of evolution by natural selection. Drawing upon wide-ranging examples from across the diversity of life, the evidence for maladaptations is critically appraised to establish its possibility, reality and importance to the design of living things. A theory of maladaptation is developed, as a corrective for a long-standing error in evolutionary biology. Examples of maladaptation are evaluated to identify the challenges and successes in applying the concept to organismal traits. The deeper causes and consequences of maladaptation are discussed to understand its far-reaching impact on the evolution of life on Earth - and beyond. Overall, the book persuasively argues that maladaptation is a paragon of the changes to evolutionary theory that are needed to understand the population biology of natural selection. Maladaptation is written to be suitable for students taking courses in evolution, ecology and genetics, as well as professional researchers in these fields. Its accessible style will also appeal to a broader interdisciplinary audience, including any inquisitive reader with a general interest in science and the natural world.
Human Characteristics
Author: Preben Bertelsen
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443804754
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 450
Book Description
Every once in a while, we have to reconsider the perennial questions concerning human nature: What are the special human behaviours, social practices, and psychological structures that make us particularly human? The field of evolution, psychology and cognitive science is the most expanding, inter-disciplinary area of this field for the time being, uniting different sciences under the same evolutionary paradigm and keeping them occupied by the same eternal questions stated above. Relevant data and theoretical considerations are piling up, but an overview is needed. To facilitate this a large inter-disciplinary conference entitled “Human Mind—Human Kind” was held at Aarhus University, Denmark. The studies fall into three well defined sections: 1) Evolution and Cognition—Comparative and Developmental Perspectives, 2) Human Sociality, Morality and Religiosity, 3) Human Sexuality and Mating Strategies. Specifying the differences between our own species and the rest of the animal world always provokes debate. But these demarcations simply have to be drawn once and again. They focus attention and stimulate research, exactly because they provoke and challenge other researchers to take up the glove and prove us wrong.
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443804754
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 450
Book Description
Every once in a while, we have to reconsider the perennial questions concerning human nature: What are the special human behaviours, social practices, and psychological structures that make us particularly human? The field of evolution, psychology and cognitive science is the most expanding, inter-disciplinary area of this field for the time being, uniting different sciences under the same evolutionary paradigm and keeping them occupied by the same eternal questions stated above. Relevant data and theoretical considerations are piling up, but an overview is needed. To facilitate this a large inter-disciplinary conference entitled “Human Mind—Human Kind” was held at Aarhus University, Denmark. The studies fall into three well defined sections: 1) Evolution and Cognition—Comparative and Developmental Perspectives, 2) Human Sociality, Morality and Religiosity, 3) Human Sexuality and Mating Strategies. Specifying the differences between our own species and the rest of the animal world always provokes debate. But these demarcations simply have to be drawn once and again. They focus attention and stimulate research, exactly because they provoke and challenge other researchers to take up the glove and prove us wrong.
The Moral Psychology Handbook
Author: John M. Doris
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0199582149
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 506
Book Description
The Moral Psychology Handbook offers a survey of contemporary moral psychology, integrating evidence and argument from philosophy and the human sciences. The chapters cover major issues in moral psychology, including moral reasoning, character, moral emotion, positive psychology, moral rules, the neural correlates of ethical judgment, and the attribution of moral responsibility. Each chapter is a collaborative effort, written jointly by leading researchers in thefield.
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0199582149
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 506
Book Description
The Moral Psychology Handbook offers a survey of contemporary moral psychology, integrating evidence and argument from philosophy and the human sciences. The chapters cover major issues in moral psychology, including moral reasoning, character, moral emotion, positive psychology, moral rules, the neural correlates of ethical judgment, and the attribution of moral responsibility. Each chapter is a collaborative effort, written jointly by leading researchers in thefield.
Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation
Author: Peter Hammerstein
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262083263
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 516
Book Description
Table of contents
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262083263
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 516
Book Description
Table of contents
The Evolution of Human Cleverness
Author: Richard Hallam
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000584313
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 277
Book Description
The Evolution of Human Cleverness presents a unique introduction to the way human cognitive abilities have evolved. The book comprises a series of mini-essays on distinct topics in which technical terms are simplified, considering how humans made the long journey from our ape-like ancestors to become capable of higher-level reasoning and problem solving. All the topics are cross-linked, allowing the reader to dip in and out, but certain key concepts run through the underlying reasoning. Chiefly, these are adaptation and selection, the distinction between ultimate and proximate causes of behaviour, gene–culture co-evolution, and domain-general versus domain-specific cognitive processes. The book should help the reader draw lessons for the human species as a whole, especially in view of the environmental threats to its own existence. Entries have been carefully crafted to cut through scientific jargon, providing bite-sized and digestible chunks of knowledge, making the topic accessible for students and lay readers alike. The author draws on research from diverse fields including Psychology, Anthropology, Archaeology, Biology, and Neuroscience to provide an unbiased account of the field, making it an ideal text for students of all levels.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000584313
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 277
Book Description
The Evolution of Human Cleverness presents a unique introduction to the way human cognitive abilities have evolved. The book comprises a series of mini-essays on distinct topics in which technical terms are simplified, considering how humans made the long journey from our ape-like ancestors to become capable of higher-level reasoning and problem solving. All the topics are cross-linked, allowing the reader to dip in and out, but certain key concepts run through the underlying reasoning. Chiefly, these are adaptation and selection, the distinction between ultimate and proximate causes of behaviour, gene–culture co-evolution, and domain-general versus domain-specific cognitive processes. The book should help the reader draw lessons for the human species as a whole, especially in view of the environmental threats to its own existence. Entries have been carefully crafted to cut through scientific jargon, providing bite-sized and digestible chunks of knowledge, making the topic accessible for students and lay readers alike. The author draws on research from diverse fields including Psychology, Anthropology, Archaeology, Biology, and Neuroscience to provide an unbiased account of the field, making it an ideal text for students of all levels.
Human Migration to Space
Author: Elizabeth Song Lockard
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319059300
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 219
Book Description
Human migration to space will be the most profound catalyst for evolution in the history of humankind, yet this has had little impact on determining our strategies for this next phase of exploration. Habitation in space will require extensive technological interfaces between humans and their alien surroundings and how they are deployed will critically inform the processes of adaptation. As humans begin to spend longer durations in space—eventually establishing permanent outposts on other planets—the scope of technological design considerations must expand beyond the meager requirements for survival to include issues not only of comfort and well‐being, but also of engagement and negotiation with the new planetary environment that will be crucial to our longevity beyond Earth. Approaching this question from an interdisciplinary approach, this dissertation explores how the impact of interior space architecture can meet both the physical and psychological needs of future space colonists and set the stage for humankind to thrive and grow while setting down new roots beyond Earth.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319059300
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 219
Book Description
Human migration to space will be the most profound catalyst for evolution in the history of humankind, yet this has had little impact on determining our strategies for this next phase of exploration. Habitation in space will require extensive technological interfaces between humans and their alien surroundings and how they are deployed will critically inform the processes of adaptation. As humans begin to spend longer durations in space—eventually establishing permanent outposts on other planets—the scope of technological design considerations must expand beyond the meager requirements for survival to include issues not only of comfort and well‐being, but also of engagement and negotiation with the new planetary environment that will be crucial to our longevity beyond Earth. Approaching this question from an interdisciplinary approach, this dissertation explores how the impact of interior space architecture can meet both the physical and psychological needs of future space colonists and set the stage for humankind to thrive and grow while setting down new roots beyond Earth.
Method and Meaning in Polls and Surveys
Author: Howard Schuman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674028272
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
Howard Schuman is one of the premier scholars of social surveys. His expertise concerns the way questions about attitudes and beliefs are worded and the effects questions have on the answers people give. However, Method and Meaning in Polls and Surveys is less about the substance of wording effects and more about approaches to interpreting the respondentâe(tm)s world, and how surveys can make that world understandableâe"though often in ways not anticipated by the researcher. Schuman examines the question-answer process that is basic to polls and surveys, as it is in so much of life. His concern is with the nature of questioning itself, with issues of validity and bias, and with the scope and limitations of meaning sought through polls and surveys. Writing with both wisdom and humor, Schuman considers the issues both at a theoretical level, bringing in ideas from other social sciences, and empirically with substantive research of his own and others. The book will be of interest to social scientists, to survey researchers in academia and business, and to all those concerned with the pervasive influence of polls in society.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674028272
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
Howard Schuman is one of the premier scholars of social surveys. His expertise concerns the way questions about attitudes and beliefs are worded and the effects questions have on the answers people give. However, Method and Meaning in Polls and Surveys is less about the substance of wording effects and more about approaches to interpreting the respondentâe(tm)s world, and how surveys can make that world understandableâe"though often in ways not anticipated by the researcher. Schuman examines the question-answer process that is basic to polls and surveys, as it is in so much of life. His concern is with the nature of questioning itself, with issues of validity and bias, and with the scope and limitations of meaning sought through polls and surveys. Writing with both wisdom and humor, Schuman considers the issues both at a theoretical level, bringing in ideas from other social sciences, and empirically with substantive research of his own and others. The book will be of interest to social scientists, to survey researchers in academia and business, and to all those concerned with the pervasive influence of polls in society.
Predicting the Future in Science, Economics, and Politics
Author: Frank Whelon Wayman
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1783471875
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 525
Book Description
It is a puzzle that while academic research has increased in specialization, the important and complex problems facing humans urgently require a synthesis of understanding. This unique collaboration attempts to address such a problem by bringing togeth
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1783471875
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 525
Book Description
It is a puzzle that while academic research has increased in specialization, the important and complex problems facing humans urgently require a synthesis of understanding. This unique collaboration attempts to address such a problem by bringing togeth