Friedrich August von Hayek (1899 - 1992) was one of the most prominent economists of the 20th century, scientifically taking a stand for liberalism and fighting nationalistic and internationalistic versions of socialism in Europe and abroad since his eminent "Road to Serfdom" (1944). Here is a nice "economy-rap", depicting the debates between him and (students of) John Maynard Keynes (1883 - 1946). Please note their trainers Ludwig von Mises (1881 - 1973) and Thomas Robert Malthus (1766 - 1834), as well as appearances of Ben Bernanke and Carl Levin. Enjoy the show.

F.A. von Hayek as an Evolutionist

Far less known than Hayeks image as a free-market-economist is the root of his scientific perspectives and arguments: Evolution. Coming from an Austrian family deeply embedded in natural sciences as well as philosophy (i.e. he served together with his nephew Wittgenstein in the army and read the first drafts of the tractatus) Hayek urged his fellow economists to study real humans instead of the "spectre" of homo oeconomicus.

In 1952 he published "The Sensory Order" about the evolution of human perception, preceding contemporary works on neurocognition and evolutionary psychology by decades.

F.A. von Hayek about the Evolution of Religion

In his last decade, the professing agnostic Hayek turned to the subject of religion and started to explore it from his evolutionary perspective. Personally, I would count his German lecture of 1982 about the topic at Klessheim castle and his final chapter "Religion and the Guardians of Tradition" in his final book "The Fatal Conceit" (1991) among the most important works in this field and time. For example, he rightfully observed the reproductive potential of religious groups.

Of course, you should find out for yourself! But if you were interested for a start, I discussed and tested some of his hypotheses here:

"Von Hayek and the Amish Fertility. How religious communities manage to be fruitful and multiply. A Case study", in: Frey, Ulrich (Hrsg.), "The Nature of God - Evolution and Religion", Tectum Verlag Marburg 2010 

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Today, I want to use this scilog in a new way: As a tool for presenting a question. I stumbled upon the topic while preparing a German book about Charles Darwin's works on religion & evolution. In his last year, the great Victorian became captivated by a book on the topic and wrote to its author William Graham:

Dear Sir

I hope that you will not think it intrusive on my part to thank you heartily for the pleasure which I have derived from reading your admirably written `Creed of Science,’ though I have not yet quite finished it, as now that I am old I read very slowly. It is a very long time since any other book has interested me so much. The work must have cost you several years and much hard labour with full leisure for work.

Read the full letter at the Darwin Correspondence Project (Letter 13230).

Intrigued, I started to read the book "The Creed of Science" myself, which is available in print as well as in open-access-directories.

Although a quotation from this Darwinian letter to Graham started a heated debate about the contradictions of atheistic naturalism by Alvin Platinga, I couldn't find much information about the author. He seems to be virtually unknown not only to German libraries and handbooks of philosophy, but also to the Internet including Wikipedia. According to the preface of 'The Creed of Science', William Graham has been Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Economy at Queen's College, Belfast.

Could you help out?

Therefore, I wanted to ask abroad if someone out there is having some bibliographic informations or scientific references to William Graham (1839 - 1911). Please don't hesitate to post a comment or contact me via my homepage.

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Applying evolutionary studies to human politics? Socialised as a German scientist, I winced on the spot. But then, I began to read "The Neighborhood Project" - and became more than convinced. For years, the eminent evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson has embarked on adventurous quests to broaden evolutionary studies into classic humanities - working together with scholars of literature, education and religion. In the captivating, autobiographic parts of "The Neighborhood Project", he is explaining why - his father has been the great novelist Sloan Wilson, who remained deeply curious about human emotions and behaviors throughout his life. After decades of doing scientific studies on plants and animals, his son finally came home.

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Some readers of this blog may have met the post about Ara Norenzayan and his outstanding work on evolutionary studies of religion. Now, Ara has joined with another (evoluttionary) social psychologist - Will M. Gervais - for a fascinating article:

Ara Norenzayan & Will M. Gervais (University of British Columbia): The Cultural Evolution of Religion (2011)

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One of the interesting experiences in doing a German as well as this English scilog about evolutionary studies of religion is to meet the dominant prejudices: While in the German blogosphere antitheist radicals tend to fight any studies exploring the field because of their fear of findings supporting adaptive scenarios, this English speaking blog is currently flooded by American-Catholic fundamentalists trying to fight evolutionary studies of humanity in general. But then, neither secular nor religious extremists managed to stop evolutionary sciences during the last century - and I happily assume they will not be able to do it in our time. ;-)

One of the reasons for my evolutionary optimism resides in the encouraging activities of David Sloan Wilson, rightfully one of the most popular evolutionary biologists around and author of famous books such as "Darwins Cathedral", "Evolution for Everyone" and now (and to be reviewed here) "The Neighborhood Project - Using Evolution to Improve my City".

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Today, the 13th Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) convenes at Tübingen University. A special I am looking forward to is the Outreach Symposium "Evolution - More than Biology" with Joseph Carroll (Literary Studies, University of Missouri, St. Louis), Esben Andersen (Economics, Aalborg University), Frank Ryan (Medicine, University of Sheffield) - and with me, from the field of scientific study of religion. Our shared aim is to introduce the colleagues from biology into thos interdisciplinary fields that have opened up to an evolutionary perspectives these last years. I am glad and grateful for the honor to introduce evolutionary studies of religiosity and religions.

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While I am toiling with the reproductive potentials of religiosity and religions in the long-term scales of evolutionary history, Eric Kaufmann is (rightfully) reaping the harvest of contemporary political studies. If you are interested (as you should be ;-) ), see Eric's new talk and presentation of his well-done book with fresh data and a lively discussion at the New America Foundation.

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On July 5th to 6th, the dedicated anthropologists of the Universities of Barcelona and Lleida brought together scientists from various scientific faculties and nations to discuss the changing roles of Religion(s) & Science(s) in contemporary culture(s). After the "Explaining Religion"-conference in Bristol (UK), it proved to be another hotspot concerning cognitive and evolutionary studies of religion in Europe within a year. Although it is, of course, impossible to condense content-rich lectures into a few sentences, I will try my best to give a brief overview of some main arguments. The event took place at the Faculty of Geography and History at Barcelona University.

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Martin Nowak is director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University - and, combining evolutionary biology and mathematics (especially game theory) one of the most creative and interdisciplinary scientists of our time. In his new book "SuperCooperators. Altruism, Evolution and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed" (with Roger Highfield), he presented as a key finding a set of five cooperative functions driving the evolutionary processes in biology and culture.

Five Ways of Solving Cooperative Dilemmata

To put it in a nutshell, Martin Nowak deciphered five distinct ways that evolved in nature and culture(s) in order to solve cooperative dilemmata such as the famous prisoner's dilemma.

1. Direct Reciprocity

2. Indirect Reciprocity

3. Spatial Games

4. Group Selection

5. Kin Selection

Here is a lecture by the author about the subject and the book:

Game Theory in the Evolutionary Studies of Religion? Yes!

Martin Nowak explicitly proposes to study the biocultural evolution of religiosity and religions by the same perspective: And I do agree. In fact, we have been doing just that in our trials to grasp the observable reproductive successes of the religiously affiliated. Game Theory is one of the most promising ways of future evolutionary studies of religiosity and religions.

* German Version of this recommendation.

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The first scientist to propose testable hypotheses concerning the biocultural evolution of religiosity (biological predisposition to behave towards superempirical agents) and religions (cultural traditions relating to superempirical agents) has been Charles Darwin. But although some classic scholars of religion such as Emile Durkheim fruitfully worked in that field, it finally succumbed to heated polemics of religious vs. antitheists as well as the natural vs. social sciences. Until some years ago, when it was finally brought up again by evolutionary biologists for the sake of their own field...

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These last weeks have seen a flurry of evolution-religion reports in the scientifically minded media. For example, Jesse Bering wrote about religion & demography in Scientific American, Jonathan Leake featured about the low birth rates of atheists in the Sunday Times and the Guardian started a lively God-instinct debate. Susan Blackmore has shown the greatness to rethink her position. And finally, even Richard Dawkins acknowledged the religion-fertility-link and, instead of applauding the progress in evolutionary studies, commented on it with disdain.

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During my doctorate thesis exploring the so-called "neurotheology" (perspectives of brain sciences on religion), I gathered and tested various works and hypotheses on the subject, most of whom turned out to be very exaggerated. But then, I found a thesis which had been presented by German neuroanatomist Prof. Dr. Detlef Linke (1945 - 2005, University of Bonn) back in 1995 on an interdisciplinary conference and had been published in 1999 in a German booklet ("Religion und Identität"). At first, it seemed to me to be simplistic and I expected to falsify it within days.

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In 2001, cognitive anthropologist Pascal Boyer initiated debates and studies with his book "Religion explained". Therein, he depicted religiosity as a by-product of cognitively interacting brain modules. During the Frankfurt Templeton Lectures 2008, we had the chance to meet and he spoke about the idea of shaping the findings since then into a new book. With "The Fracture of an Illusion: Science and the Dissolution of Religion", Pascal has soundly stood true to his word.

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I vividly remember a scene once described by Richard Dawkins about a scientist listening to a talk, then pondering it and declaring on the spot to the lecturer: "I have been wrong these last years. Your arguments convinced me."

Frankly speaking, I held that one as a legend, as I was sceptical about our psychological abilities to manage such a feat. Most of us human beings tend to interweave their scientific and emotional worldviews as part of our self-concepts, clinging to them even against strong arguments. And this is especially true concerning the evolution of religiosity and religions, where a whole sub-culture of antitheism ignored Charles Darwin for the sake of popular metaphors as e.g. describing religions as "viruses of the mind".

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During the last years, the increasingly interdisciplinary and international evolutionary studies of religiosity and religions made tremendous progress. 'Explaining Religion 2010' is an interdisciplinary conference run by the University of Bristol's Department of Philosophy and the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre which aims to integrate approaches. The event will be held at the university's beautiful Orangery  on the 2nd and 3rd of September (Thursday & Friday).

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