Introduction

Logic and probabilistic calculus is based on the logic algebra and rules of replacement of logical arguments in functions of the logic algebra by probabilities of their being true and rules of replacement of the logic operations by the arithmetic ones. This chapter aims to stress the differences between the two theories, which warrant calling each concept by a different name: rationality optimization and selection optimization. It focuses on the concept of optimization and, in particular, how far apart rationality optimization is from selection optimization. The disciplinary boundary, though, between economics and evolutionary biology is irrelevant to the fault line that separates rationality optimization from selection optimization. Given that economics and biology have used both concepts of optimization, they tend to treat rationality as a product of selection, and hence overlook their differences. Such frequency-dependent fitness payoffs are the basis of evolutionary game theory and new attempts to conceive the population as a coherent society.