Overview
- Studies the impact of liberal morality on the evolutionary fitness of social groups, concluding that such a morality has a detrimental impact
- Develops an evolutionary political theory of preference satisfaction that operates in the tradition of scientific realism and that constitutes a more accurate explanation of public choice
- Asserts that both liberal democracy and markets have a high potential in terms of maximising the satisfaction of individual preferences
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism (PASTCL)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- Evolution of liberalism
- Classical liberalism
- Democratic problems
- Preference satisfaction
- Liberal institutions
- Liberal democracy
- Public choice theory
- Free market
- Rational choice theory
- Evolutionary science
- Evolutionary theory
- The liberal market solution
- Constitutional political economy
- Contractarian market
- Multilevel selection
- Economic ethics
- The autocratic market solution
- Market superiority
- Political philosophy
- Evolutionary ethics
About this book
This book assesses the evolutionary sustainability of liberalism. The book’s central claim is that liberal institutions ultimately weaken their social groups in the evolutionary process of inter-group competition. In this sense, institutions relying on the liberal satisfaction of preferences reveal maladaptive tendencies. Based on the model of multilevel selection, this work appraises the capacity of liberal democracy and free markets to satisfy preferences. In particular, the book re-evaluates public choice theory’s classic postulate that free markets are a suitable alternative to the shortcomings of western liberal democracies regarding preference satisfaction. Yet, the book concludes that free markets are not a solution to the problems of liberal democracy because both market and democratic liberal institutions rest on the liberal satisfaction of preferences, an ethic which hurts group evolutionary fitness. This volume is of interest to political theorists, evolutionary ethicists, political economists and to general readers interested in the future of liberalism.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Filipe Nobre Faria is Researcher and Lecturer in Political Philosophy and Ethics at the Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal. He earned his PhD in Political Theory (2016) from King’s College London and his Master’s degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (2011) from the University of East Anglia. His main research interest lies in applying the insights of the biological sciences to issues in social and political philosophy.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Evolutionary Limits of Liberalism
Book Subtitle: Democratic Problems, Market Solutions and the Ethics of Preference Satisfaction
Authors: Filipe Nobre Faria
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31496-5
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and the Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-31495-8Published: 13 November 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-31498-9Published: 13 November 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-31496-5Published: 01 November 2019
Series ISSN: 2662-6470
Series E-ISSN: 2662-6489
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 239
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Institutional/Evolutionary Economics, Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Economic Policy, Capital Markets