Game Theory: A Critical Introduction [Paperback]

Shaun Hargreaves-Heap (Author), Yanis Varoufakis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0415250951 | ISBN-13: 978-0415250955 | Edition: 2

In recent years game theory has swept through all of the social sciences. Its practitioners have great designs for it, claiming that it offers an opportunity to unify the social sciences and that it it the natural foundation of a rational theory of society. Game Theory is for those who are intrigued but baffled by these claims, and daunted by the technical demands of most introductions to the subject.

Requiring no more than simple arithmetic, the book:


* Traces the origins of Game Theory and its philosophical premises

* Looks at its implications for the theory of bargaining and social contract theory

* Gives a detailed exposition of all of the major `games' including the famous `prisoner's dilemma'

* Analyses cooperative, non cooperative, repeated, evolutionary and experimental games

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Shaun Hargreaves-Heap is Professor of Economics at the University of East Anglia, UK.
Yanis Varoufakis is Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Sydney.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 2 edition (April 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415250951
• ISBN-13: 978-0415250955
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,120,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best critical introduction to game theory, for skeptics, September 23, 2004

By 

nyc_economist (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Game Theory: A Critical Introduction (Paperback)

This is an excellent book. An introduction to game theory for those who approach the field with some skepticism. The book gives you all the important essential elements of non-cooperative and evolutionary game theory but with a much deeper emphasis on understanding its essential methodological and philosophical underpinnings yet without too much formalism. The authors do a superb job of introducing the topics via a tour of important moral, political, and philosophical ideas and debates mentioning Marx, Smith, Hobbes, Habermas, Hume, Locke and others. The book takes several detours to offer useful expositions of terms and debates such as methodological individualism, common knowledge, equilibrium, learning, morality, norms, etc. I'd recommend this book for two types of people: (1) those who plan to read just one book about game theory (because you don't think it's your cup of tea); and (2) those who plan on learning game theory rigorously (so that you can get a picture of the forest before getting lost in the trees).

This is not just one of my favorite books amongst the several books that I have read on game theory and mechanism design, but also one of the most thumbed book in my entire book collection.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for application to social sciences; bad for introduction, February 5, 2008

By 

WhyTD360 "WhyTD360" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Game Theory: A Critical Introduction (Hardcover)

The second edition of this book has the benefit of significant improvements on the first edition. The first was criticized for being incorrect at times; the second book is revised and improved. Generally, the book gives a detailed examination of game theory including all the essential elements. Its applications to the moral, political, and philosophic ideas are well developed and extremely interesting. "The book takes several detours to offer useful expositions of terms and debates such as methodological individualism, common knowledge, equilibrium, learning, morality, norms, etc." as the last review said. These detours prove worthwhile.

The book is difficult to follow and poorly organized, in my opinion. It takes significant work to find the essential ideas and suffers from a lack of "introduction". For those unfamiliar with game theory there are many introductory texts that give a better presentation of the basic ideas without having to work as hard. One of these I find particularly helpful is available online (I had found it for free): Game Theory by Turocy and von Stengel which was used as the introductory survey for the Encyclopedia of Information and Systems. Lawyers may find a short pamphlet produced by Kaplow and Shavell "Decision analysis, Game theory, and Information" quite a useful and practical introduction. The advantage of these texts is their length; both can be read within an couple of hours. Also, both of these provide a bibliography for further reading. For the mathematically inclined, the comprehensive treatment by Fudenberg and Tirole, Game Theory, is a classic for a reason.

This book is a worthwhile text and can spark significant thought and suggest great research; however, I fear it could scare too many off as an introduction to the (amazing) world of games.

5.0 out of 5 stars Game Theory in its entirety, September 13, 2011

By 

Matthew Dovell (South of Boston, MA United States of America) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Game Theory: A Critical Introduction (Paperback)

This is some pretty deep material but the pace of it is moderate.

Some of the topics discussed are the following: CKR - Common Knowledge of Rationality, CAB Consistent alignment of beliefs, Prisoners Dilemma and of course the Nash Equilibrium.

John Von Neumann's Minimax theorem is interesting because it reminds me of the scorched earth policies that sometimes erupt during war. Interestingly enough there is also a bit of Adam Smith's materials in here and how his theories apply and are questioned with game theory. The games of Stag Hunt and Hawk & Dove help illustrate the points made within the book. What I like about the book is it is not using the title as a teaser but it does not head straight into terminology without defining it and without giving examples.

If you have any interest in game theory then this is without question the book to get.