Are humans at their core seekers of their own pleasure or cooperative members of society? Paradoxically, they are both. Pleasure seeking can take place only within the context of what works within a defined community, and central to any community are the evolved codes and principles guiding appropriate behavior or morality. The complex interaction of morality and self-interest is at the heart of Geoffrey M. Hodgson's approach to evolutionary economics, which is designed to bring about a better understanding of human behavior. In "From Pleasure Machines to Moral Communities", Hodgson casts a critical eye on neoclassical individualism, its foundations and flaws, and turns to recent insights from research on the evolutionary bases of human behavior. He focuses his attention on the evolution of morality, its meaning, why it came about, and how it influences human attitudes and behavior. This more nuanced understanding sets the stage for a fascinating investigation of its implications for a range of pressing issues drawn from diverse environments, including the business world and crucial policy realms like health care and ecology. This book provides a valuable complement to Hodgson's earlier work with Thorbjorn Knudsen on evolutionary economics in Darwin's Conjecture, extending the evolutionary outlook to include moral and policy-related issues.

About the Author
Geoffrey M. Hodgson is research professor at the University of Hertfordshire Business School, England, and the author or coauthor of over a dozen books, including The Evolution of Institutional Economics and Darwin's Conjecture.

Reviews
"In his bold and thought-provoking new book, Geoffrey M. Hodgson exposes the deficiencies in 'methodological individualism' and shows how the neoclassical model of human nature is a crude caricature when it comes to dealing with the emergent dynamics of collective phenomena. In doing so, he provides much-needed clarification for an often muddy economic debate." (Peter Corning, Institute for the Study of Complex Systems and the author of The Fair Society)"



Book Information
ISBN 9780226922713
Author Geoffrey M. Hodgson
Format Hardback
Page Count 328
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 567g
Dimensions(mm) 24mm * 16mm * 2mm