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Title: Evolution of the Social Contract by Brian Skyrms ISBN: 0-521-55583-3 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 28 June, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: Subtle and surprisingly casual- a really entertaining book.
Comment: 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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Title: The Stag Hunt and the Evolution of Social Structure by Brian Skyrms ISBN: 0521533929 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 15 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod ISBN: 0465021212 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: September, 1985 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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Title: Rational Ritual : Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge by Michael Suk-Young Chwe ISBN: 0691114714 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 06 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Complexity of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod ISBN: 0691015678 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 18 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.12 |
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Title: Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior by Elliott Sober, Elliott Sober, David Sloan Wilson ISBN: 0674930479 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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