The theme of Michael Shermer's new book is a graceful paradox. Decades of study of behavioral psychology, neuroscience and genetics, layered over more than a century of evolutionary studies, proves that we're not completely rational in making economic choices. But an understanding of our fascinating limitations, which Shermer provides, makes us freer than we were before we knew of them.
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Shermer easily demolishes another myth about both evolution and economics: that both depend exclusively on cutthroat, bloody-handed "survival of the fittest" competition to weed out the weakest creatures and companies. While competition obviously plays a vital part in the markets and in evolution, both primates and markets have evolved to depend on cooperation. Just as those among our hunter-gatherer ancestors who couldn't cooperate in small societies risked punishment, including exile and death, today's citizens, including top business executives, cooperate and complement each other across industry to serve customers as readily as they compete within a particular industry. People who can't cooperate often face exile from the business world.
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Semi-related:
It is possible to be moral without God by Bishop Richard Harries
