The Adaptation Problem, Evolutionand Normative Economics

Amartya Sen has advanced a number of distinct arguments against utilitarianism and‘utility’-based views more generally. One of these invokes various ways in whichunderdogs can ‘adapt’ and learn to live with their situations. Sen’s argument is related toJon Elster’s discussion of ‘adaptive preferences’ but is distinct in part because Sen citesthe need for underdogs to survive. When read in combination with his discussion ofDarwinism, Sen’s discussion of adaptation is relevant to recent work in normativeeconomics which is influenced by evolutionary biology. It poses a problem for RichardLayard’s book on happiness, particularly its policy conclusions. It also poses a problemfor Ken Binmore’s account of justice because the empathetic preferences in terms ofwhich interpersonal comparisons are made in Binmore’s account are formed throughsocial evolution...