This project will explore the thematic links between rational choice theory and Darwinian evolution and try to explain why these links obtain. It will also study the link between evolutionary and rational choice theory in relation to one particular issue: the tension between individual self-interest and group welfare.
Professor Samir Okasha and Professor Ken Binmore in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bristol have been awarded a European Research Council Advanced Grant worth £960,928 for their project Darwinism and the Theory of Rational Choice. The aim of the research project is to explore the relationship between Darwinian evolution and the theory of rational choice, from an overarching philosophical perspective. There exist deep and interesting links, both conceptual and formal, between evolutionary theory and rational choice theory. These arise because a notion of optimization, or maximization, is central to both bodies of theory. Evolutionary biologists typically assume that because of natural selection, animals will behave as if they are trying to maximize their Darwinian fitness (for some appropriate measure of fitness). This is the guiding assumption in much work on animal behaviour. Rational choice theorists typically assume that humans will behave as if they are trying to maximize a utility function.
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