tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959751201989948904.post5406589754391813067..comments2023-10-16T08:12:48.795-04:00Comments on Uncommon Liberty: Collective Action Problems and the Gift of IrrationalityUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959751201989948904.post-48784565527845862912008-07-10T05:48:00.000-04:002008-07-10T05:48:00.000-04:00My best understanding of the evo psych explanation...My best understanding of the evo psych explanation is that our ancestors evolved in small, persistent groups. This sets up the potential for reciprocal altruism, where you do a favour for the group without expecting immediate payback.<BR/><BR/>Enforcement is driven by the "altruistic punisher" tendency humans have, which ensures that it doesn't pay to cheat. This mechanism sidesteps the need Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959751201989948904.post-53655243930458663012008-07-09T16:07:00.000-04:002008-07-09T16:07:00.000-04:00Yes, as useful as rational choice theory is for an...Yes, as useful as rational choice theory is for analysis, and as much as rationality is, most of the time, the best way to proceed, there's little doubt that perfectly rational behavior has not been the evolutionary outcome for humans--at least to date.<BR/><BR/>But the question is, why would natural selection favor the kind of irrationality that leads me to sacrifice for the group? James Hanleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18431950784819780004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959751201989948904.post-21649021448066359822008-07-09T01:33:00.000-04:002008-07-09T01:33:00.000-04:00Exactly Scott. Any irrationality that was clearly...Exactly Scott. Any irrationality that was clearly bad for survival has been cleared out of our brains by evolution.<BR/><BR/>Its this sort of thing that indefinitely-repeated game theory has to deal with.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959751201989948904.post-64915832922312646992008-07-08T23:45:00.000-04:002008-07-08T23:45:00.000-04:00It might be fair to say that evolution has a far l...It might be fair to say that evolution has a far less narrow, and more enlightened, view of what is "rational" than most observers do. Those emotions must be achieving something.Scott Hanleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13332208542776592894noreply@blogger.com