Criticism: you are not using game theory

By hipkapi March 2, 2011 Balagangadhara, criticism

Is the model of games useful in understanding evolution of some aspect of society? If you use ‘games’ in a very, very general sense (viz. there are players, strategies, end-results, and such like), then it might. There is a flourishing branch of mathematics called ‘Game theory’ that has been used to study many things in nature and society: from the evolution of rules and norms to seeing evolution itself in Game-theoretic terms. I need to warn you that its notion of games is a technical one and involves two or more ‘players’, who follow certain strategies for ‘winning’ to which a certain pay-off is coupled. While it has uncovered certain interesting dilemmas in societies, I do not find it as fruitful as its practitioners claim.