Lecture Notes - Game Theory
Slides Jane Austen: Game Theorist Notes
2
Jane Austen
1775-1817
Northanger Abbey (posthumous 1818)
Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Mansfield Park (1814)
Emma (1816)
Persuasion (posthumous 1818)
One of 8 children, parents keen on education.
Drafted several of her novels long before the age of twenty
Struggled to get them published
Gained moderate success for sense and sensibility
Clever and conservative writer, experimental in actual fact - pre
modernism
One of her major techniques she invented - free indirect speech,
expresses psychological state of mind.
Died at 42
3 Forerunners to game theory have a long history but in its
Game Theory modern form it is most associated with the mathematician
John von Neumann (1903-1957) and his book The Theory
of Games and Economic Behavior (1944).
Game Theory considers interactions between two or more
people. It is based on Rational Choice Theory which looks
at human choice and decision-making activities
In its simplest form, Rational Choice Theory is interested
in payoff maximization - where an individual or group
gains the most from a situation.
Rational Choice Theory does not determine whether
someone (or a group) is altruistic or selfish, nor is it
interested in what the alternatives they choose from are,
only in the act of choosing between them
, Why link Austen to game theory:
Writing in the enlightenment period
The age of reason, commitment to the belief that
the world is knowable to human kind as long as
there is enough commitment to it
Tension between empirical knowledge and rational
thought
Austen read Hume and Smith - generous
empiricists : philosophy linked to patterns of social
history - imagination and feeling play in human
reasoning, an idea that appeals to novelists
This links to rational choice theory.
Payoff maximisation is key to game theory
4 Game theory makes several assumptions:
Game theory II 1. Human beings are autonomous individuals, conscious of having
needs and wants.
2. Human beings are animals who are capable of rational thought
3. Rational here means something closer to ratio (latin: Reckoning,
numbering calculation) than to our customary use of rationality. A
person, having recognized their object, is able to assess a range of
actions in terms of how much of or how close to that object it
brings them
5 Preference: Structures and frames the act of choosing;
Game Theory what a person/group wants - the object - will determine
III what they will do and how
The Key Ideas Choice: is the bedrock of game theory; people/groups
choose between alternatives or course of action.
Strategy: recognises how far a person/group is able to
anticipate outcome of a future action. This may include
hypothesizing on the likely action of others.
6 Think punnet square of choices and outcomes
GT Example:
7 What is the best outcome
Pay-off
maximization
8 What is done to swing the odds in your favour
Stratergies
9
Criticism
Game theory is the grand theory of neo-liberalism -
obsessional focus on the greatest game.
Slides Jane Austen: Game Theorist Notes
2
Jane Austen
1775-1817
Northanger Abbey (posthumous 1818)
Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Mansfield Park (1814)
Emma (1816)
Persuasion (posthumous 1818)
One of 8 children, parents keen on education.
Drafted several of her novels long before the age of twenty
Struggled to get them published
Gained moderate success for sense and sensibility
Clever and conservative writer, experimental in actual fact - pre
modernism
One of her major techniques she invented - free indirect speech,
expresses psychological state of mind.
Died at 42
3 Forerunners to game theory have a long history but in its
Game Theory modern form it is most associated with the mathematician
John von Neumann (1903-1957) and his book The Theory
of Games and Economic Behavior (1944).
Game Theory considers interactions between two or more
people. It is based on Rational Choice Theory which looks
at human choice and decision-making activities
In its simplest form, Rational Choice Theory is interested
in payoff maximization - where an individual or group
gains the most from a situation.
Rational Choice Theory does not determine whether
someone (or a group) is altruistic or selfish, nor is it
interested in what the alternatives they choose from are,
only in the act of choosing between them
, Why link Austen to game theory:
Writing in the enlightenment period
The age of reason, commitment to the belief that
the world is knowable to human kind as long as
there is enough commitment to it
Tension between empirical knowledge and rational
thought
Austen read Hume and Smith - generous
empiricists : philosophy linked to patterns of social
history - imagination and feeling play in human
reasoning, an idea that appeals to novelists
This links to rational choice theory.
Payoff maximisation is key to game theory
4 Game theory makes several assumptions:
Game theory II 1. Human beings are autonomous individuals, conscious of having
needs and wants.
2. Human beings are animals who are capable of rational thought
3. Rational here means something closer to ratio (latin: Reckoning,
numbering calculation) than to our customary use of rationality. A
person, having recognized their object, is able to assess a range of
actions in terms of how much of or how close to that object it
brings them
5 Preference: Structures and frames the act of choosing;
Game Theory what a person/group wants - the object - will determine
III what they will do and how
The Key Ideas Choice: is the bedrock of game theory; people/groups
choose between alternatives or course of action.
Strategy: recognises how far a person/group is able to
anticipate outcome of a future action. This may include
hypothesizing on the likely action of others.
6 Think punnet square of choices and outcomes
GT Example:
7 What is the best outcome
Pay-off
maximization
8 What is done to swing the odds in your favour
Stratergies
9
Criticism
Game theory is the grand theory of neo-liberalism -
obsessional focus on the greatest game.
