Darwin's Conjecture: The Search for General Principles of Social and Economic Evolution

by Geoffrey M. Hodgson, Thorbjørn Knudsen

Of paramount importance to the natural sciences, the principles of Darwinism, which involve variation, inheritance, and selection, are increasingly of interest to social scientists as well. But no one has provided a truly rigorous account of how the principles apply to the evolution of human society—until now.

In Darwin’s Conjecture, Geoffrey Hodgson and Thorbjørn Knudsen reveal how the British naturalist’s core concepts apply to a wide range of phenomena, including business practices, legal systems, technology, and even science itself. They also critique some prominent objections to applying Darwin to social science, arguing that ultimately Darwinism functions as a general theoretical framework for stimulating further inquiry. Social scientists who adopt a Darwinian approach, they contend, can then use it to frame and help develop new explanatory theories and predictive models.

This truly pathbreaking work at long last makes the powerful conceptual tools of Darwin available to the social sciences and will be welcomed by scholars and students from a range of disciplines.

Genres: Economics, Science, Evolution

304 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2010

Reviews

[Otto Lehto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hodgson and Knudsen have put together an impressive interdisciplinary showcase of the importance of what they call "Generalized Darwinism" for social and economic evolution. The book is very carefully and analytically argued - sometimes to the point of pedantry - and it draws on an expansive evolutionary literature in both the biological sciences and the social sciences. The impressiveness of the reading on display is only eclipsed by the impressiveness of reading comprehension on display; it is very rare for social scientists to feel so comfortable in venturing into the natural sciences for theoretical inspiration - and be justified in doing so!

The best parts of the book, in my opinion, are the first and middle sections of the book. In them, the authors 1) offer a clear exposition of their project, before proceeding to 2) refute the common misconception that the application of Darwinian principles in the social sciences and economics is misguided, outdated, and/or dangerous. They carefully dismantle a throne of lies. After that, they 3) offer the framework of "Generalized Darwinism" to show the importance of the three core principles of variation, inheritance, and selection for social and economic evolution on multiple levels, as part of gene culture coevolution and multi level selection. In particular, the authors proceed to 4) argue for the special importance of the differential replication of memes and habits as carriers of socioeconomic evolution. At the same time, they 5) counter some objections from Lamackians and others. In the end, they do not reach any staggering conclusions. This appears modest but each step is rock solid. They take small and marginal steps towards truth.

The book loses a bit of steam towards the end. It gets bogged down in some theoretical debates that it fails to resolve: between individual selection versus group selection, between Darwinian evolution and Lamarckian evolution. etc... As a result, the book offers a rather messy and fuzzy picture of multi level selection, including replicators and interactors on multiple levels of analysis. This might be an accurate picture of evolutionary selection but it remains a bit impressionistic and unsatisfactory. So, although the book lays the groundwork for future research admirably, it fails to weave together more than the rudiments of the tapestry of a socioeconomic evolution. This is to be expected, since pioneering works rarely manage to do more than scratch the surface of the new area of research. More work needs to be done to sparse out the typology of relevant replicators and interactors in the social domain, and to clarify some of the ambiguities.

Nonetheless, even with its flaws, this book is one of the best - and one of the few - comprehensive expositions of the undeniable value of Darwinism for the social sciences. After taking its analysis seriously, it will be impossible for economists and sociologists, traumatized by the legacy of Social Darwinism and put off by the excesses of genetic determinism, to continue to make the case that Darwinian principles, which clearly underlie biological evolution in most of its forms, are inoperative, marginal, or moot in the social sciences. No, the best descriptions of socioeconomic evolution will have to include Darwinian principles as necessary (if insufficient) elements. Showing why and how this must be so is the impressive achievement of Hodgson and Knudsen.

[Rhys Lindmark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost put down this book after the first 25 pages. Too abstract.

But give it a bit of time and they begin to formalize evolutionary dynamics in social systems. Most crucially, they define the role of a social replicator vs. interactor and how this shows up in, for example, habits embodied in institutions.

This view culminates when they map Maynard Smith's major information transitions from the biological sphere to the cultural one. Excellent work. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Minus one star for being bogged down in intellectual debates on Lamarckism and emergence, and for generally abstract, meandering writing throughout.

[Yokusun Basi]

Darwin's Conjecture: The Search for General Principles of Social and Economic Evolution by Geoffrey M. Hodgson (2013)

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent work. Made me go back to re-read my Darwin .