Natural Justice 1st Edition

by Ken Binmore (Author)

6 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0199791484

ISBN-10: 0199791481

Why is ISBN important?

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Share <Embed>

Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$25.47 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Condition: Used - Like New

In Stock. Sold by Amazon Warehouse Deals, Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

23 Used from $8.42

FREE Shipping

Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$27.44 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it Thursday, Oct. 27? Order within and choose Two-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

List Price: $28.95 Save: $1.51 (5%)

21 New from $18.79

FREE Shipping.

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Ship to:

Select a shipping address:

More Buying Choices

21 New from $18.79 23 Used from $8.42

44 used & new from $8.42

See All Buying Options

Free%20Two-Day%20Shipping%20for%20College%20Students%20with%20Amazon%20Student

This book lays out foundations for a "science of morals." Binmore uses game theory as a systematic tool for investigating ethical matters. He reinterprets classical social contract ideas within a game-theory framework and generates new insights into the fundamental questions of social philosophy. In contrast to the previous writing in moral philosophy that relied on vague notion such as " societal well-being" and "moral duty," Binmore begins with individuals; rational decision-makers with the ability to empathize with one another. Any social arrangement that prescribes them to act against their interests will become unstable and eventually will be replaced by another, until one is found that includes worthwhile actions for all individuals involved.

Natural Justice

$27.44 FREE Shipping. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Brian Skyrms

6

Paperback
$20.23
Brian Skyrms
Paperback
$29.09
Ken Binmore

21

Paperback
$8.78
Matt Ridley

69

Paperback
$12.49
Christopher H. Achen

19

Hardcover
$23.39
Daniel Kahneman

2,336

in Medical Applied Psychology
Paperback
$9.07

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Save Big On Open-Box & Pre-owned: Buy "Natural Justice” from Amazon Warehouse Deals and save 12% off the $28.95 list price. Product is eligible for Amazon's 30-day returns policy and Prime or FREE Shipping. See all Open-Box & Pre-owned offers from Amazon Warehouse Deals.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Ken Binmore has written a truly exciting book that derives moral principles of fairness, equity, and other behavior from evolutionary theory. In his theory, societies that hit on more efficient and 'fairer' equilibrium are more likely to survive through a combination of genetic and cultural selection. He is in my judgment appropriately highly critical of the rather arbitrary solutions to morality offered by Kant and some other philosophers. The book is innovative but controversial, and is truly a fresh and original approach written mainly in non-technical language. It should be widely read and discussed. I predict it will have a significant influence on discussions of moral principles in the future."--Gary S. Becker, University of Chicago and Nobel laureate in Economics

"Ken Binmore has written a lively, readable account of his social contract theory--shorn of technicalities and accessible to nonspecialists. Readers will be treated to fun and games in social philosophy for the 21st century." --Brian Skyrms, Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Irvine

About the Author

Ken Binmore is a mathematician-turned-economist who has devoted his life to the theory of games and its applications in economics, evolutionary biology, psychology, and moral philosophy. He is best known for his part in designing the telecom auction that raised $35 billion for the British taxpayer, but his major research contributions are to the theory of bargaining and its testing in the laboratory. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of 12 books and some 90 research papers. He is Emeritus Professor of Economics at University College London.

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (January 28, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0199791481
ISBN-13: 978-0199791484
Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 0.8 x 7 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #204,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #57 in Books > Textbooks > Business & Finance > Economics > Economic Theory
- #256 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Philosophy > Ethics
- #348 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Theory

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars

5 star		50%
4 star		16%
3 star		16%
2 star		1%
1 star		17%

Write a customer review

See all 6 customer reviews

Top Customer Reviews

Groundbreaking

ByJJ vd Weeleon June 16, 2007

Format: Hardcover

Even though it is not always a s clear as it should have been, this is a brilliant book. To moral philosophy, Binmore applies Marx' famous dictum reversed: We have tried to change the world, now it is time to understand it. According to Binmore, prevailing theories have taught us little about how justice actually works. Instead of relying on evidence on the nature of ourselves and our societies, they have invoked various utopian "Gods", such as rationality or the impartial spectator, when talking about morality. In Binmore's trademark fluent and militant style he scorns especially Kantian philosophy, that is referred to as the `dark age of moral reasoning', and has led to `absurdly implausible rules'. (In another passage we are told that the self-proclaimed pundits of moral philosophy `have no more access to some noumenal world of moral absolutes than the boy who delivers our newspapers'.)
Instead, says Binmore, we need to study the actual rules that people use and see where they come from: How did they evolve and why do they survive?
Moral relativism indeed, but of a very persuasive sort. According to Binmore, fairness rules have evolved to help societies select between equilibria in various coordination games that arise in life. Societies that selected the more efficient equilibria have survived, resulting in our current and constantly evolving social contract. Or in the more eloquent words of Binmore: "Fairness is the social tool washed up on the human beach by the tide of evolution for solving [...] coordination problems [...]".

Although this summarizes the basic philosophy underlying the whole book, the full theory exposited in it is great deal more complicated. It offers a Rawlsian argument in which people bargain in the original position about the outcome of a coordination game, a process made possible by the existence of "empathic preferences". In this process, people use certain fairness rules and social indices for interpersonal utility comparison. According to Binmore, the latter indices evolve, to eventually be such that the fairness rules lead to an efficient (Nash) bargaining outcome. The result is a theory of the coevolution of a genetically determined possibility to emphatize with each other and a culturally determined set of social indices.

Even though the book is a non-technical summery of Binmore's "Game theory and the social contract", it is far from an easy read. There is a fair deal of bargaining and game theory to be swallowed and the exposition is not always as clear as one would hope. Also, it will carry many readers into uncharted terrain, since the book brims with concepts from decision theory, game theory, political philosophy, biology, and evolutionary theory.

But in the end, this is what makes the book so immensely rewarding. Here is a first stab at a whole new theory of morality, and it is so full of ideas that it can keep an army of scholars busy for a long time to follow up on all of them. Most of the ideas may be crude, controversial, incomplete and some even wrong, but they are invariably exciting. 10 Years of thinking by one of the finest minds in economics have yielded a treasure pot for a naturalistic approach to morality.

0Comment 25 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Games & Morality

ByDr. A. Bowyeron June 6, 2006

Format: Hardcover

This is a deeply important, but flawed, book. The important aspects are
the ideas behind it, and the flaws are in their exposition.

The book describes the application of evolutionary game theory to the
development of human morality. It shows how some moral positions are
stable, and so are likely to have been selected both by Darwin's Law
of Evolution and by cultural selection in successful societies. It
also shows how forces can influence those stable configurations, so,
for example, in a society with an uncorrupt disinterested and powerful
police force, one would expect utilitarianism to prevail, whereas in
an anarchy one would expect egalitarianism to do so.

The book also offers a cogent, finely-argued and completely successful
rebuttal of Kantian deontology, "right for right's sake", and the
categorical imperative. This rebuttal is long overdue.

However, from the literary standpoint, Binmore is no Dawkins. He
writes well enough from sentence to sentence, and his use of anecdote
and example is good. But he does not have a feel for overall
structure, and does not give the impression of having in mind the
possible ways in which the reader might mis-understand what he is
writing.

Binmore's ideas are both correct and very significant. It is a shame
that he has not written about them more clearly. But on balance this book is well worth reading.

11 comment 34 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Good idea, confused writing

ByPoplarLeafon December 13, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition

The idea is good. However, the writing skill is so so. Oftentimes it is very misleading or confusing the way it is written. I read this book very slowly because I want to figure out what it really wants to say. If it is for the public (no math involved), it should be an easy read. Oh well, I wish it used some math so that would be easier for me in this case. Again, the idea is great, the writing is confused.

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Five Stars

ByAmazon Customeron December 7, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Essential reading

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

Ken Binmore Tells The Truth

ByBret Blakesleeon June 8, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book is about how to use Game Theory in real life (or how it might be used) by a genuine expert. Ken Binmore is Professor Emeritus of Economics at University College, London. This is the real thing by a mathematician, economist, and game theorist who was awarded the CBE "for making a significant achievement for the United Kingdom" in his field. "Game Theory and the Social Contract, [is] an ambitious attempt to lay the foundations for a genuine science of morals using the theory of games. In Game Theory and the Social Contract Binmore proposes a naturalistic reinterpretation of John Rawls' original position that reconciles his egalitarian theory of justice with John Harsanyi's utilitarian theory. His recent Natural Justice provides a nontechnical synthesis of this work." (an excerpt from Wikipedia). This book is the real thing.

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

One Star

ByNo Just Noon January 20, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Didn't like it at all. Won't bother explaining why.

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

This item: Natural Justice

Set up a giveaway

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

Game Theory and the Social Contract, Vol. 1: Playing Fair Hardcover

Ken Binmore

2

$77.00
Evolution of the Social Contract Paperback

Brian Skyrms

6

$20.23

Conditions of Use
Privacy Notice
Interest-Based Ads

6pm Score deals on fashion brands	AbeBooks Rare Books & Textbooks	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Alexa Actionable Analytics for the Web	Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	AmazonFresh Groceries & More Right To Your Door

AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally	Home Services Handpicked Pros Happiness Guarantee	Amazon Inspire Free Digital Educational Resources	Amazon Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services	Audible Download Audio Books

BeautyBar.com Prestige Beauty Delivered	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Casa.com Kitchen, Storage & Everything Home	ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics	CreateSpace Indie Print Publishing Made Easy	Diapers.com Everything But The Baby

DPReview Digital Photography	East Dane Designer Men's Fashion	Fabric Sewing, Quilting & Knitting	Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	Junglee.com Shop Online in India

Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital Publishing Made Easy	Prime Now FREE 2-Hour Delivery on Everyday Items	Prime Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Soap.com Health, Beauty & Home Essentials	TenMarks.com Math Activities for Kids & Schools

Wag.com Everything For Your Pet	Warehouse Deals Open-Box Discounts	Whispercast Discover & Distribute Digital Content	Woot! Deals and Shenanigans	Yoyo.com A Happy Place To Shop For Toys	Zappos Shoes & Clothing

Natural Justice 1st Edition

Sorry, there was a problem.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open $25.47 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open $27.44 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Turn on 1-Click ordering

or

or

Frequently Bought Together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product Details

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$25.47 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$27.44 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open