Biological markets, cooperation, and the evolution of morality

Abstract

Biological market theory has in recent years become an important part of the social evolutionist’s toolkit. This article discusses the explanatory potential and pitfalls of biological market theory in the context of big picture accounts of the evolution of human cooperation and morality. I begin by assessing an influential account that presents biological market dynamics as a key driver of the evolution of fairness norms in humans. I argue that this account is problematic for theoretical, empirical, and conceptual reasons. After mapping the evidential and explanatory limits of biological market theory, I suggest that it can nevertheless fill a lacuna in an alternative account of hominin evolution. Trade on a biological marketplace can help explain why norm-based cooperation did not break down when our Late Pleistocene ancestors entered new, challenging social and economic environments. 1 Introduction 1.1 Conditions for biological markets 2 Modelling the Cooperation Market 2.1 Cooperation markets and the evolution of equitable divisions 2.2 Markets without market dynamics? 3 Markets and Evolutionary Continuity 4 Markets, Reputation-Escalation, and Fairness 4.1 The target of reputational concern 5 An Alternative Scenario 5.1 Fairness before markets 5.2 Markets and the reciprocation crisis