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Game Theory and the Social Contract, Vol. 1: Playing Fair
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 519.3
EAN: 9780262023634
ISBN: 0262023636
Label: The MIT Press
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 424
Publication Date: March 29, 1994
Publisher: The MIT Press
Studio: The MIT Press
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Editorial Review:
In Game Theory and the Social Contract, Ken Binmore argues that game theory provides a systematic tool for investigating ethical matters. His reinterpretation of classical social contract ideas within a game-theoretic framework generates new insights into the fundamental questions of social philosophy. He clears the way for this ambitious endeavor by first focusing on foundational issues—paying particular attention to the failings of recent attempts to import game—theoretic ideas into social and political philosophy.
Binmore shows how ideas drawn from the classic expositions of Harsanyi and Rawls produce a synthesis that is consistent with the modern theory of noncooperative games. In the process, he notes logical weaknesses in other analyses of social cooperation and coordination, such as those offered by Rousseau, Kant, Gauthier, and Nozick. He persuasively argues that much of the current literature elaborates a faulty analysis of an irrelevant game.
Game Theory and the Social Contract makes game-theoretic ideas more widely accessible to those with only a limited knowledge of the field. Instructional material is woven into the narrative, which is illustrated with many simple examples, and the mathematical content has been reduced to a minimum.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Upgrading Rawls' "Theory of Justice"
This is part one of Ken Binmore's exciting theory of the social contract taking up the discussion that took place in the 70ies after the publication of John Rawls' "Theory of Justice". While he sticks to the idea of a social contract reached through voluntary agreement in the Original Position, he also considers the utilitarian critique such as Harsanyi's. But Binmore does much more than that. He translates Rawls' metaphysical idea of a reflective equilibrium into a two-stage bargaining ... Read More
Rating: - Important Contribution to Political Philosophy
Binmore treats ethics not as a system of rules justified by Reason, but as by contrast, ethics the scientific study of how humans behave and think. Binmore reports extensively on contemporary ethnographies of hunter-gatherer societies, believing that such societies mirror the social and material conditions the human race faced during its formative period as a species. Such societies have no division of labor except for gender, and are politically egalitarian, decision-making power being quite equally ... Read More
Rating: - Upgrading Rawls' "Theory of Justice"
In his exciting theory of the social contract Ken Binmore takes up the discussion that took place in the 70ies after the publication of John Rawls' "Theory of Justice". While he sticks to the idea of a social contract reached through voluntary agreement in the Original Position, he also considers the utilitarian critique such as Harsanyi's. But Binmore does much more than that. He translates Rawls' metaphysical idea of a reflective equilibrium into a two-stage bargaining game with flesh ... Read More
Rating: - Classic Games like Prisoners' Dilemma applied to Social Sci
Many social scientists do not like the results and correct analysis of the game Prisoners' Dilemma and try to alter the situation by analyzing the game incorrectly. Binmore points out that what these folks want is a different model game. The problem is that these folks don't know enough game theory or utility theory.
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