The Neurophilosophical Case for an Evolutionary Turn in Neuroeconomics

Abstract

The canonical model of neuroeconomics centres on the notion of subjective value and analyses choice along the lines of neoclassical economics. Recently, this model has been challenged by approaches that introduce selectionist models of parallel and distributed neural networks. This perspective was already developed by Hayek in his book ‘The Sensory Order’ which is recognized as a precursor to modern theories of neuronal selectionism, such as Edelman’s ‘Neural Darwinism’. This paper argues that Hayek’s approach offers an alternative philosophical and conceptual basis for neuroeconomics and elaborates its basic features based on recent developments in the brain sciences. Starting out from empirical evidence for selectionism, I sketch a framework in terms of Marr’s methodology for the cognitive sciences and take a closer look at the concepts of the ‘predictive brain’ and the ‘social brain’. Evolutionary neuroeconomics pursues two main explanatory strategies: The first is analysing choice as a dynamic selectionist process, and the second is grounding neurobiological hypotheses about behaviour on the evolutionary history of the human species. These two are linked by exploring co-evolutionary linkages between internal neurobiological processes and external cultural evolution, thus relating evolutionary neuroeconomics with the subdisciplines of social and cultural neuroscience.

Keywords: Hayek; good-based model; neuronal selectionism; Marr; distributed cognition; cultural neuroscience; predictive brain; social brain; context; co-evolution

JEL Classification: B41, D91