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An Evolutionary Economic Paradigm

David Sloan Wilson

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Guest Introduction

Today, evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson joins the podcast to discuss his recent paper, co-authored with Dennis Snower: "Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Economics."

Neoclassical, or orthodox economic theory is based on physics equations that assume the economic system is always trending towards rest, or equilibrium. Their paper suggests replacing physics, the heart of the paradigm, with Darwin's evolutionary science, which sees the economy as a system always undergoing evolution, driven by the triad of variation, selection, and replication.

David is a distinguished professor of biological science at Binghamton University, co-founder of a number of organizations that work to put evolutionary theory into practice, and even a fiction author of Atlas Hugged, a rejoinder to the selfish individualism of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged that emphasizes the role of cooperation in evolution.

Topics include:

  • What replacing the neoclassical "physics of social science" with evolutionary theory brings to the table
  • Why an unregulated economy will not spontaneously self-organize into a more cooperative, improved system
  • The 'multilevel paradigm' of economics
  • Core design principles to manage the cultural evolution of a multilevel economy
  • A synthesis of science and spirituality

Enjoy!

Time Map

  • 12:40 - What is the ‘physics of social science’ that neoclassical economics pursued, and how does replacing that with evolutionary science improve things?
  • 17:10 - What is the distinction between the two kinds of complex adaptive systems, and why is it so important?
  • 26:50 - How evolutionary science contradicts the laissez-faire, invisible hand hypothesis.
  • 32:40 - How evolutionary science presents a new direction for the role of mathematical models in economics
  • 38:20 - The multilevel theory claims that the stuff of progress is to ‘increase the functional organization’ of society. What is functional organization?
  • 53:10 - Elinor Ostrom’s core design principles in how communities can successfully manage resources as a commons (rather than a market-provisioned resource), and how these principles can scale up from local communities to designing a global economy.
  • 1:02:10 - What is ‘well-being’, from an evolutionary perspective?
  • 1:07:00 - How might ‘managed cultural evolution’ help us chart a middle way between laissez-faire and central planning?

Links from the Conversation