World the Game Theorists Made
Regular price
€39.99
A01=Paul Erickson
altruism
arms race
Author_Paul Erickson
biology
capitalism
Category=PBUD
Category=PDX
charity
cold war
decision making
economics
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
evolution
fairness
game theory
games and economic behavior
history
individuals
information processing
interdisciplinary
john von neumann
justice
markets
military strategy
motivation
nonfiction
oscar morgenstern
philanthropy
political science
programming
psychology
rationalism
reason
social interaction
society
trust
Product details
- ISBN 9780226097176
- Weight: 595g
- Dimensions: 16 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 04 Nov 2015
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
In recent decades game theory-the mathematics of rational decision-making by interacting individuals-has assumed a central place in our understanding of capitalist markets, the evolution of social behavior in animals, and even the ethics of altruism and fairness in human beings. With game theory's ubiquity, however, has come a great deal of misunderstanding. Critics of the contemporary social sciences view it as part of an unwelcome trend toward the marginalization of historicist and interpretive styles of inquiry, and many accuse its proponents of presenting a thin and empirically dubious view of human choice. The World the Game Theorists Made seeks to explain the ascendency of game theory, focusing on the poorly understood period between the publication of John von Neumann and Oscar Morgenstern's seminal Theory of Games and Economic Behavior in 1944 and the theory's revival in economics in the 1980s.
Drawing on a diverse collection of institutional archives, personal correspondence and papers, and interviews, Paul Erickson shows how game theory offered social scientists, biologists, military strategists, and others a common, flexible language that could facilitate wide-ranging thought and debate on some of the most critical issues of the day.
Paul Erickson is assistant professor of history, environmental studies, and science in society at Wesleyan University. He is coauthor of How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind: The Strange Carrer of Cold War Rationality, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
