International Law

Are We Programmed to be Stupid?

Michael Shermer's new book "Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales From Evolutionary Economics" is reviewed by Tyler Cowen For Sale: Big Ideas About Humanity

Cowen writes:

"At the same time, our biological heritage drives human discontent. Our evolution on the East African plains did not equip us to cope emotionally with the large-scale and often impersonal nature of a modern market society.

Small tribal groups are used to sharing, not to extremes of wealth. That is why envy is rife. In other words, he says, you may feel that modern capitalism is unfair if you apply the outmoded moral code of the tribe. Shermer believes we nonetheless should look to the market as the dominant mode of organizing social affairs."

Shermer is yet another author who believes that evolutionary explanations are needed to explain some 300 years of social history.

This sounds very unlikely to me.

Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on February 01, 2008 (boomark / email).