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Individuality and Entanglement: The Moral and Material Bases of Social Life
A richly transdisciplinary account of some fundamental characteristics of human societies and behavior
In this book, acclaimed economist Herbert Gintis ranges widely across many fields―including economics, psychology, anthropology, sociology, moral philosophy, and biology―to provide a rigorous transdisciplinary explanation of some fundamental characteristics of human societies and social behavior. Because such behavior can be understood only through transdisciplinary research, Gintis argues, Individuality and Entanglement advances the effort to unify the behavioral sciences by developing a shared analytical framework―one that bridges research on gene-culture coevolution, the rational-actor model, game theory, and complexity theory. At the same time, the book persuasively demonstrates the rich possibilities of such transdisciplinary work.
Everything distinctive about human social life, Gintis argues, flows from the fact that we construct and then play social games. Indeed, society itself is a game with rules, and politics is the arena in which we affirm and change these rules. Individuality is central to our species because the rules do not change through inexorable macrosocial forces. Rather, individuals band together to change the rules. Our minds are also socially entangled, producing behavior that is socially rational, although it violates the standard rules of individually rational choice. Finally, a moral sense is essential for playing games with socially constructed rules. People generally play by the rules, are ashamed when they break the rules, and are offended when others break the rules, even in societies that lack laws, government, and jails.
Throughout the book, Gintis shows that it is only by bringing together the behavioral sciences that such basic aspects of human behavior can be understood.
In this book, acclaimed economist Herbert Gintis ranges widely across many fields―including economics, psychology, anthropology, sociology, moral philosophy, and biology―to provide a rigorous transdisciplinary explanation of some fundamental characteristics of human societies and social behavior. Because such behavior can be understood only through transdisciplinary research, Gintis argues, Individuality and Entanglement advances the effort to unify the behavioral sciences by developing a shared analytical framework―one that bridges research on gene-culture coevolution, the rational-actor model, game theory, and complexity theory. At the same time, the book persuasively demonstrates the rich possibilities of such transdisciplinary work.
Everything distinctive about human social life, Gintis argues, flows from the fact that we construct and then play social games. Indeed, society itself is a game with rules, and politics is the arena in which we affirm and change these rules. Individuality is central to our species because the rules do not change through inexorable macrosocial forces. Rather, individuals band together to change the rules. Our minds are also socially entangled, producing behavior that is socially rational, although it violates the standard rules of individually rational choice. Finally, a moral sense is essential for playing games with socially constructed rules. People generally play by the rules, are ashamed when they break the rules, and are offended when others break the rules, even in societies that lack laws, government, and jails.
Throughout the book, Gintis shows that it is only by bringing together the behavioral sciences that such basic aspects of human behavior can be understood.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published November 8, 2016
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March 29, 2017I once went on a research trip to Tanzania with a bunch of anthropology undergrads. As dedicated anthropologists, they all chafed at the fact that many of the liberal arts schools they attended lumped anthro and sociology together and required students to study both. Sociology was clearly inferior, of course, and they even went so far as to take issue with its core tenet, that "Reality is socially constructed." These were educated kids, so I was a bit shocked, but when I asked what they believed instead, they told me "reality is culturally constructed." I still facepalm every time I think of this. And Herb Gintis is a kindred spirit. The uniting impetus of this book is that four academic disciplines are trying to describe the same phenomena and use theoretical frameworks that are incommensurable and to some degree mutually exclusive, but which must compete and integrate if they are ever to adequately explain their subject.
For Gintis, those disciplines are the "behavioral sciences," including economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and sociobiology. Gintis frames this in terms of an explanation for human social behavior, though I think the content of the book points toward a more generalized account of the evolution of social behavior with less specific to say about human society than he implies in the framing material. It's an understandable impulse, and the same one that motivated me to pick up the book.
That is, it feels like we're on the cusp of seeing humans, and all of our cultural traditions and behaviors, as products of a process of genetic and cultural evolution tremendously different in particulars but fundamentally the same as those experienced by other animals. The peak these disciplines are climbing toward is coming into focus. An uncharitable read of this book is just that it's jumping the gun, trying to tie these threads together before they're long enough to reach--most of the slack is filled in with Gintis' pet theories, that don't feel adequately grounded in disciplinary work. I think that's unfair because Gintis knows it; the epilogue admits that his goal was mainly to provocatively mix behavioral disciplines in order to blur the lines and get people to do this on the wider basis that will be necessary to make it robust.
That makes it necessarily a less exciting book than it promises to be. Its other flaws, at least as a pop-academic work, are in presentation. It feels very disjointed among chapters, the classic career-retrospective "toss all the major publications in as chapters" gambit, and each chapter is dense with algebra that might be super insightful but fuck if I'm gonna take the time to dig into that right now. And the framing just makes it seem like he doesn't have a take home point so much as a contribution to multiple long-standing arguments (the group selection conversation the nastiest of them). There are some neat ideas in here--the evolution of property chapter stands out for its unifying insight--but they are generally available as papers and don't require the book as a whole. To be fair, though, I skimmed/skipped much of it :/
For Gintis, those disciplines are the "behavioral sciences," including economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and sociobiology. Gintis frames this in terms of an explanation for human social behavior, though I think the content of the book points toward a more generalized account of the evolution of social behavior with less specific to say about human society than he implies in the framing material. It's an understandable impulse, and the same one that motivated me to pick up the book.
That is, it feels like we're on the cusp of seeing humans, and all of our cultural traditions and behaviors, as products of a process of genetic and cultural evolution tremendously different in particulars but fundamentally the same as those experienced by other animals. The peak these disciplines are climbing toward is coming into focus. An uncharitable read of this book is just that it's jumping the gun, trying to tie these threads together before they're long enough to reach--most of the slack is filled in with Gintis' pet theories, that don't feel adequately grounded in disciplinary work. I think that's unfair because Gintis knows it; the epilogue admits that his goal was mainly to provocatively mix behavioral disciplines in order to blur the lines and get people to do this on the wider basis that will be necessary to make it robust.
That makes it necessarily a less exciting book than it promises to be. Its other flaws, at least as a pop-academic work, are in presentation. It feels very disjointed among chapters, the classic career-retrospective "toss all the major publications in as chapters" gambit, and each chapter is dense with algebra that might be super insightful but fuck if I'm gonna take the time to dig into that right now. And the framing just makes it seem like he doesn't have a take home point so much as a contribution to multiple long-standing arguments (the group selection conversation the nastiest of them). There are some neat ideas in here--the evolution of property chapter stands out for its unifying insight--but they are generally available as papers and don't require the book as a whole. To be fair, though, I skimmed/skipped much of it :/
Displaying 1 of 1 review