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Evolution of the Social Contract (Paperback)

by Brian Skyrms (Author) "In 1710 there appeared in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London a note entitled "An argument for Divine Providence, taken from the..." (more)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press (28 Jun 1996)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0521555833
  • ISBN-13: 978-0521555838
  • Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 13 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 511,110 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
‘This book takes philosophical discussion of game theory to a new level of sophistication.’ Elliot Sober, University of Wisconsin

‘… a brilliant and impressive work …’. Christopher Bertram, The Economic Journal

Product Description
In this pithy and highly readable book, Brian Skyrms, a recognised authority on game and decision theory, investigates traditional problems of the social contract in terms of evolutionary dynamics. Game theory is skilfully employed to offer new interpretations of a wide variety of social phenomena, including justice, mutual aid, commitment, convention and meaning. The author eschews any grand, unified theory. Rather, he presents the reader with tools drawn from evolutionary game theory for the purpose of analysing and coming to understand the social contract. The book is not technical and requires no special background knowledge. As such, it could be enjoyed by students and professionals in a wide range of disciplines: political science, philosophy, decision theory, economics and biology.

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First Sentence
In 1710 there appeared in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London a note entitled "An argument for Divine Providence, taken from the constant Regularity observ'd in the Births of both Sexes." Read the first page
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Subtle and surprisingly casual- a really entertaining book., 30 Mar 1998
By A Customer
I originally picked up this book due to a glowing print review given to it by Freeman Dyson and I wasn't at all disapointed. I found it to be a really remarkably in-depth treatment of the subject matter considering the relatively meager length and yet it was simple, direct and unpretentious. ( I would preface this book, however, with a more inclusive work on Game theory if you're interested. It's not necessary to understand the thesis or learn from the experiments but there are many principal concepts in Game theory that he never defines completely- such as Nash Equilibrium. I suggest William Poundstone's "The Prisoner's Dilemma")

I think the final chapter is one of the most compelling explanations available in print of how differential reproduction can and does most frequently create environments where individuals of a species engage in activities that benefit the group at their own personal expense. He leads directly to the point of any given chapter without beating you over the head with it and by the time you get there, you realize that it was without resorting to extensive technical language or drawing on a huge number of oblique studies. It probably doesn't need to be said that this book doesn't provide much to the "rational choice social contract" thinkers and I think the title is more than enough to steer them away, anyway.

In summary, I think this book would be of tremendous interest to anyone interested in Game theory, Theoretical mathematics, sociology, political science, microeconomics or any of a number of different fields specifically because of the author's aversion to distilling the ideas presented in the book into a misleading one sentence conclusion. If you're looking for a brief yet salient discussion of the subject matter, this is both.

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