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27 janvier 2022
- handle: 10670/1.ztfw19
- isbn: 9781800642065
- eisbn: 9791036529498
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ , info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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history economics ritual social science neuroscience political science anthropology psychology ethology evolutionary biology experimental psychology human evolution History & Philosophy Of Science SCI080000 SCI086000 SOC001000 JH PD PSASujets proches
Frontier troubles Social science Sciences, Social Human sciences Social studies Behavioral sciences Science, Mental Mental philosophy Mind Behavioral sciences Annals Biography--Psychology Personality Biography--Character comptabilitéCiter ce document
Bang Petersen Michael et al., « The naturalness of (many) social institutions », Open Book Publishers, ID : 10670/1.ztfw19
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Résumé
Most standard social science accounts only offer limited explanations of institutional design, i.e., why institutions have common features observed in many different human groups. Here, we suggest that these features are best explained as the outcome of evolved human cognition, in such domains as mating, moral judgment and social exchange. As empirical illustrations, we show how this evolved psychology makes marriage systems, legal norms and commons management systems intuitively obvious and compelling, thereby ensuring their occurrence and cultural stability. We extend this to propose under what conditions institutions can become ‘natural’, compelling and legitimate, and outline probable paths for institutional change given human cognitive dispositions. Explaining institutions in terms of these exogenous factors also suggests that a general theory of institutions as such is neither necessary nor in fact possible. What are required are domain-specific accounts of institutional design in different domains of evolved cognition.