Evolution of the social contract
By: Brian Skyrms, University of California, Irvine
Edition: Second edition.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 148
ISBN-13: 9781107077287; 9781107434288
Subjects: Social contract; Game theory
Description: "In this new edition of Evolution of the Social Contract, Brian Skyrms uses evolutionary game theory to analyze the genesis of social contracts and investigates social phenomena including justice, communication, altruism, and bargaining. Featuring new material on evolution and information transfer, and including recent developments in game theory and evolution literature, his book introduces and applies appropriate concepts of equilibrium and evolutionary dynamics, showing how key issues can be modelled as games and considering the ways in which evolution sometimes supports, and sometimes does not support, rational choice. He discusses topics including how bargaining with neighbours promotes sharing of resources, the diversity of behavior in ultimatum bargaining in small societies, the Prisoner's Dilemma, and an investigation into signalling games and the spontaneous emergence of meaningful communication. His book will be of great interest to readers in philosophy of science, social science, evolutionary biology, game and decision theory, and political theory"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Preface to the second edition; Preface to the original edition; Acknowledgments; 1. Sex and justice; 2. Fairness and commitment; 3. Mutual aid; 4. Correlated convention; 5. The evolution of meaning; Postscript; Notes; References; Index.