| View Larger Image | The Bounds of Reason: Game Theory and the Unification of the Behavioral Sciences | Hardcoverby Herbert Gintis (Author)
| List Price: | $35.00 | | Price: | $28.63 | | You Save: | $6.37 (18%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Princeton University Press | | Page Count: | 304 Pages | | Publication Date: | April 05, 2009 | | Sales Rank: | 62,376nd |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Game theory is central to understanding human behavior and relevant to all of the behavioral sciences--from biology and economics, to anthropology and political science. However, as The Bounds of Reason demonstrates, game theory alone cannot fully explain human behavior and should instead complement other key concepts championed by the behavioral disciplines. Herbert Gintis shows that just as game theory without broader social theory is merely technical bravado, so social theory without game theory is a handicapped enterprise. Gintis illustrates, for instance, that game theory lacks explanations for when and how rational agents share beliefs. Rather than construct a social epistemology or reasoning process that reflects the real world, game theorists make unwarranted assumptions which imply that rational agents enjoy a commonality of beliefs. But, Gintis explains, humans possess unique forms of knowledge and understanding that move us beyond being merely rational creatures to being social creatures. For a better understanding of human behavior, Gintis champions a unified approach and in doing so shows that the dividing lines between the behavioral disciplines make no scientific sense. He asks, for example, why four separate fields--economics, sociology, anthropology, and social psychology--study social behavior and organization, yet their basic assumptions are wildly at variance. The author argues that we currently have the analytical tools to render the behavioral disciplines mutually coherent. Combining the strengths of the classical, evolutionary, and behavioral fields, The Bounds of Reason reinvigorates the useful tools of game theory and offers innovative thinking for the behavioral sciences. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 2 reviews)
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The easy way for the game theory by Edoardo Angeloni (Teramo , Italy)  5 Stars
September 04, 2009
Gintis substains this position in according with the fact that the game theory is adapt to explicate social models. The mathematics that he applies is no very difficult and the proofs are clearly made by the auctor. This book is linked to the trust in the possibility to preview in some way the human behaviour.
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Easy to read yet containing more content than most books by An anonymous engineer (Port Tobacco, MD USA) 5 Stars
April 26, 2009
I saw this book on a counter in a book store. I saw the quote on the front from Nobel-Prize-winning economist Vernon Smith likening it to the works of David Hume and Adam Smith---strong praise indeed. I was intrigued, so I picked up the book and leafed through it. I couldn't finish it at the book store so I bought it and took it home.
I can't do justice to this book in a sentence or two. Professor Gintis sets an ambitious goal for this book--reconciling the various behavioral sciences (economics, psychology, biology, and sociology) with their different, indeed conflicting, explanations of human behavior. He examines how the insights into human behavior given by game theory are complemented by understandings drawn from other social sciences.
Although I have little familiarity with game theory, I found the book relatively easy to follow. The writing is clear---with many short sentences rather than paragraph-long, pseudo-academic clouds of words. The author appears to have put considerable effort in to making the material accessible---he avoids difficult mathematics even if doing so slightly expands the needed explanations.
This book is both thought provoking and enjoyable. I strongly recommend it to any graduate student or professional in the social sciences. I plan to give copies as gifts to a few people.
It's only $25.20 if you buy it through Amazon rather than the $35 I paid in a bookstore.
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An engineer who values economics
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