Skip to main content
Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

Princeton University Press

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
book: Individuality and Entanglement
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Individuality and Entanglement

The Moral and Material Bases of Social Life
  • and
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2016

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Herbert Gintis is an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of a number of books, including Game Theory Evolving, The Bounds of Reason, Unequal Chances, A Cooperative Species, and Game Theory in Action (all Princeton).

Reviews

"This is a masterly and path-breaking book by one of the most complete behavioral scientists of all time, Herbert Gintis. It seeks to unify the behavioral sciences and to provide a core analytical framework. It should be required reading for every student of behavioral science and will play a critical role in the development of the behavioral sciences. . . . I would unhesitatingly give it a five-star-plus rating."---Sanjit Dhami, Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    i
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available

    Contents

    vii
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Overview

    xi
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    1 Gene-Culture Coevolution

    1
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    2 Zoon Politikon: The Evolutionary Origins of Human Socio-political Systems

    12
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    3 Distributed Effectivity: Political Theory and Rational Choice

    45
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    4 Power and Trust in CompetitiveMarkets

    67
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    5 Rational Choice Revealed and Defended

    88
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    6 An Analytical Core for Sociology

    109
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    7 The Theory of Action Reclaimed

    140
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    8 The Evolution of Property

    165
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    9 The Sociology of the Genome

    186
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    10 Gene-Culture Coevolution and the Internalization of Norms

    227
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    11 The Economy as Complex Dynamical System

    246
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    12 The Future of the Behavioral Sciences

    267
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Acknowledgments

    279
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    References

    281
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Subject Index

    341
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Author Index

    345
    Download PDF

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 11, 2017
eBook ISBN:
9781400883165
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400883165
eBook ISBN: 9781400883165
Keywords for this book
Sociology; Employment; Inclusive fitness; Probability; Behavior; Rational choice theory; Economic equilibrium; Norm (social); Kin selection; Economics; Altruism; Behavioural sciences; Internalization; Result; Rationality; Social structure; Nash equilibrium; Phenotype; Preference (economics); Utility; Dominance hierarchy; Decision-making; General equilibrium theory; Self-interest; Sociobiology; Endowment effect; Social equilibrium; Voting; Role; Group selection; Competition (economics); Loss aversion; Agency (sociology); Morality; Markov process; Social theory; Theory; Strong reciprocity; Economic efficiency; Handicap principle; Emergence; State of nature; Talcott Parsons; Utilitarianism; Dictator game; Cultural hegemony; Ownership (psychology); Pareto efficiency; Calculation; Chimpanzee; Heuristic; Coefficient of relationship; Prisoner's dilemma; Public sphere; Externality; Incentive; Fundamental theorems of welfare economics; Consumer Goods; Sociocultural evolution; Decision theory; Precommitment; Social dilemma; Leveling (philosophy); Marginal cost; Marginal rate of substitution; Thick description; Rational agent; Impossibility; Market economy; Indifference curve
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
Downloaded on 17.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781400883165/html
Scroll to top button