RECONCILING GROUP SELECTION AND METHODOLOGICAL INDIVIDUALISM

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Advances in Austrian Economics

ISSN: 1529-2134
Series editor(s): Roger Koppl; Steven Horwitz

Subject Area: Economics

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Document Information:
Title:	RECONCILING GROUP SELECTION AND METHODOLOGICAL INDIVIDUALISM
Author(s):	Todd J. Zywicki
Volume:	7 Editor(s): Roger Koppl ISBN: 978-0-76231-041-8 eISBN: 978-1-84950-294-8
Citation:	Todd J. Zywicki (2005), RECONCILING GROUP SELECTION AND METHODOLOGICAL INDIVIDUALISM, in Roger Koppl (ed.) Evolutionary Psychology and Economic Theory (Advances in Austrian Economics, Volume 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.267-277
DOI:	10.1016/S1529-2134(04)07013-9 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Article type:	Chapter Item
Abstract:	Methodological individualism underpins economic analysis. In his paper in this volume, however, Douglas Glen Whitman demonstrates that group selection can be reconciled with methodological individualism. This essay extends Whitman’s analysis in two ways. First, it summarizes and restates the necessary conditions for group selection to play a role in the evolution of human preferences and societies. Second, it discusses the role of group selection in Hayek’s thought, with a particular focus on the role of group selection in the evolution of legal rules and the rule of law. The viability of group selection is demonstrated to be an empirical question.