The theory of cultural evolution by F. A. Hayek and evolutionary psychology (Part two)

Abstract

The paper highlights the theory of cultural evolution by F. A. Hayek, which in retrospect appears as a complex and deep system, in many respects anticipating the ideas of modern evolutionary psychology. The second part dicusses its key element — the idea of group selection, which Hayek used to explain why, in the long-run evolutionary perspective, more efficient social orders capable of providing a higher living standard and supporting a larger population are more likely to survive. This became grounds for his accusations of shifting onto the position of methodological holism. However, under closer examination group selection and methodological individualism turn out to be quite compatible, appearing in Hayek’s understanding as two aspects of a unite explanatory scheme.