The Survival Game · How Game Theory Explains the Biology of Cooperation and Competition by Barash, David P. -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Title Page Epigraph Table of Contents 1 - The Games We All Play: What They Are, Why They Matter

What’s the Big Idea? Sartre’s Dictum Isn’t It All Too Machiavellian? The Regrettable Reality of Conflict What It’ll Tell Us and What It Won’t Duels, Truels, and Rules

2 - Mastering the Matrix

Coordination Games Pascal’s Wager Simple Strategies Follow the Leader? Guessing Games The Battle of the Bismarck Sea

3 - Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Problem of Cooperation

The Classic Formulation A Few Examples Forward Thinking and Backward Induction Other Ways Out? Axelrod’s Tournament and Rapoport’s TIT-FOR-TAT The “Live-and-Let-Live” System During World War I Reciprocity Future Tripping Prisoner’s Dilemma as Rorschach Test Zero-Sum Jealousy

4 - Social Dilemmas: Personal Gain Versus Public Good

Some Examples Social Dilemmas and the Social Contract The Free-Rider Problem The Tragedy of the Commons Rousseau’s Stag Hunt A Bit of Psychology: Groups and Grouches Some More Psychology: Lifeboats, Loners, and Losers

5 - Games of Chicken

The Classic Case Some Examples: Chickens, One to One Madmen, Steering Wheels, and Other Ploys Ultimatum Games Social Chickens War and Peace The Conscious Chicken

6 - Animal Antics

Snaggle-Mouths, Side-Blotches, and Stability Sex Social Dilemmas Among Natural Groups Hawks and Doves Bullies, Bourgeois, and Other Complications Dads, Cads, Coys, and Sluts Different Ways of Being a Male

7 - Thoughts from the Underground

On Being Reasonable On Being Unreasonable Stubborn Unreasonableness Predictable Unreasonableness Understandable Unreasonableness A Troublesome Fallacy “Logical” Vicious Circles Pas Trop de Zèle!

ALSO BY DAVID P. BARASH NOTES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INDEX ABOUT THE AUTHOR Notes Copyright Page