ANOTHER NARRATIVE CONTRADICTION

Fiscal conservatives, and conservatives generally, endorse the simple hedonistic view of humans that was developed by Jeremy Bentham and James Mill.   This view roughly holds that humans seek pleasure (reward) and avoid both lack pain and lack of pleasure.. This reward/non-reward paradigm is similar to behaviorist psychology in which the consequences of actions determine future behavior, where the consequences may be divided into two exclusive categories: reward, no reward.

Just as individual behaviors may be shaped by consequences, so may the development of the species.  In natural selection, those genes which lead to behavior which help propagate themselves are passed on (rewarded) to future generation.  Those genes that do not lead to behavior that propagates them lead to their loss from the species gene pool (non-reward).


Conservatives accept this paradigm in economics and individual behavior but many deny that it applies to biology.