Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-03T22:46:22.740Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Influence of Scottish Enlightenment on Darwin's Theory of Cultural Evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Alain Marciano  and
Maud Pelissier
Alain Marciano
Affiliation:
Université de Corse-Pascal Paoli, Faculté de Droit et d'Economie, BP 52, 20250 Corté; marciano@univ-corse.fr, et GREQAM UMR CNRS 6579, 15-19 allée Claude Forbin, 13627 Aix-en-Provence Cedex.
Maud Pelissier
Affiliation:
Université d'Aix-Marseille, Faculté d'Economie Appliquée et GREQAM UMR CNRS 6579, 15–19 allée Claude Forbin, 13627 Aix-en-Provence Cedex; mpeli@univ-aix.fr.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Since the 1980s, institutional change has become a matter of great interest as economists faced the necessity and the challenge to provide a theory of economic or cultural evolution. Their first reaction was to refer to biology, a field in which theories of evolution have reached a high degree of sophistication. This was all the more legitimate and relevant given that biology has been largely influenced by economics (Schweber 1977, 1980; Gordon 1991; Kresge and Wenar 1994; Depew and Weber 1995). Indeed, the influence of classical political economy on the views of one of the fathers of the modern theory of evolution, Charles Darwin, is widely admitted. Darwin borrowed from economists fundamental ideas such as spontaneous order and methodological individualism (from Adam Smith), the positive role of diversity and variety (from Charles Babbage) and the concept of the struggle for life (from Thomas Malthus). Therefore, the ideas promoted by the founding fathers of political economy, sometimes called “Darwinians before Darwin” (Hayek 1973, p. 23), have shaped Darwin's theory of biological evolution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , June 2000 , pp. 239 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arrow, Kenneth. J. 1951. Social Choice and Individual Values. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1963.Google Scholar
Condillac, Abbé Etienne Bonnot de. 1754. Traité des Sensations. Paris: Fayard, 1989.Google Scholar
Darwin, Charles. 1859. The Origin of Species by the Means of Natural Selection. London: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1988.Google Scholar
Darwin, Charles. 1871. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. London: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1988.Google Scholar
Depew, D. J. and Weber, B. H.. 1995. Darwinian Evolving: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Fontaine, Philippe. 1997. “Identification and Economic Behavior: Sympathy and Empathy in Historical Perspective.” Economics and Philosophy 13: 261–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, Scott. 1991. The History and Philosophy of Social Science. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Harsanyi, John. 1977. Rational Behaviour and Bargaining Equilibrium in Games and Social Situations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich August von. 1973. Law, Legislation and Liberty, vol. 1: Rules and Order. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hodgson, Geoffrey M. 1993. Economics and Evolution: Bringing Back Life Into Economics. Cambridge: Polity Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hume, David. 1739–1740. A Treatise of Human Nature. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1992.Google Scholar
Josselin, Jean-Michel and Marciano, Alain. 1995. “Constitutionalism and Common Knowledge: Assessment and Application to the Design of a Future European Constitution.” Public Choice 85: 173–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Josselin, Jean-Michel and Marciano, Alain. 1997. “The Paradox of Leviathan: How to Develop and Contain the Future European State?” European Journal of Law and Economics 4: 5–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Josselin, Jean-Michel and Marciano, Alain. 1999. “General Norms and Customs.” In Backhaus, J., ed., The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, pp. 233–239.Google Scholar
Kresge, S. and Wenar, L.. 1994. Hayek on Hayek: An Autobiographical Dialogue. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Marciano, Alain and Pélissier, Maud. 1999. “La théorie de l'évolution culturelle hayékienne à la lumière de la Descendance de l'Homme de Darwin.” WP GREQAM 99C08.Google Scholar
Nadeau, Robert. 1998. “Spontaneous Order.” In Davis, J. B., Hands, D. Wade, and Mäki, U., eds., The Handbook of Economic Methodology. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 477–84.Google Scholar
Schweber, Silvan. S. 1977. “The Origin of the Origin Revisited.” Journal of the History of Biology 10: 229–316.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schweber, Silvan. S. 1980. “Darwin and the Political Economists: Divergence of Character.” Journal of the History of Biology 13: 195–289.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sen, Amartya. 1977. “Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioral Foundations of Economic Theory.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 6: 317–44.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. 1759. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Press, 1976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tort, P. 1983. La pensée hiérachique et l'évolution. Paris: Aubier Montaigne.Google Scholar
Witt, Ulrich. 1995. “The Theory of Societal Evolution: Hayek's Unfinished Legacy.” In Birner, J. and Van Zijp, R., eds., Hayek, Coordination and Evolution: His Legacy In Philosophy, Politics and Economics and the History of Ideas. London: Routledge, pp. 178–89.Google Scholar