Solving Social Dilemmas: Ethics, Politics, and Prosperity

An original account of the role of ethical dispositions in the development of prosperous commercial societiesIn Solving Social Dilemmas, Roger Congleton provides an explanation for the rise of prosperous commercial societies.Congleton argues that an endless series of social, economic, and political dilemmas have to be solved or ameliorated to sustain social and economic progress and suggests that the most plausible solutions involve internalized rules of conduct.Previous foundational texts suggest that institutions often emerge to address social dilemmas, but Congleton focuses on a solution that is arguably prior to formal institutions: the internalization of principles and rules of conduct that directly affect individual behavior and thereby group outcomes.Supported by an intellectual and analytical history of the emergence of commercial societies in the West, the book uses elementary game theory to review a few dozen social, economic, and political dilemmas that need to be solved if