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Optimizing Engines: Rational Choice in the Neolithic?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Kim Sterelny
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Abstract

This article has both substantive and methodological goals. Methodologically, it shows that rational choice theory (in its behavioral ecology form) is an especially important tool for guiding research in contexts in which agents appear to be acting against their best interests. The Neolithic transition is one such case, and the article develops a substantive conception of that transition, illustrating the heuristic power of behavioral ecology.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 82 , Issue 3 , July 2015 , pp. 402 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I would like to thank the Australian Research Council for generous grants that supported the research leading to this article. I presented drafts at Sydney University, the Australian National University, Cambridge, Paris, and the New Zealand Association of Philosophy; the work benefited much from feedback from those audiences. Peter Hiscock, Lawrence A. Kuznar, and Trevor Watkins (especially) gave generous and constructive feedback, as did two anonymous referees for this journal.

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