Paradoxes of Rationality and Cooperation: Prisoner's Dilemma and Newcomb's Problem

The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a famous problem in game theory. In its simplest form, two players are faced with independent choices: to cooperate or not to cooperate. Each does better if both cooperate than if neither does; but each does better if he does not cooperate whatever the other does. The outcome of their choice can be the difference between life and death. Philosophers see this problem as an abstact model of the classic conflict between self-interest and a socially advantageous moral order. Some philosophers have argued that it is a special case of Newcomb’s Problem, technically a puzzle in mathematical decision theory. There is a deep division amongst philosophers over the nature and extent of the relationship between these two dilemmas. Both, however, threaten the foundations of ethical and political theory, even the social sciences, for they cast doubt on our understanding of rational behaviour.

This anthology, the first to bring together the most important philosophical essays on the paradoxes, analyses the concepts underlying the Prisoner’s Dilemma and Newcomb’s Problem and evaluates the proposed solutions. The relevant theories have been developed over the past four decades in a variety of disciplines: mathematics, economics, psychology, political science, biology, and philosophy. And the problems these paradoxes uncover can arise in many different forms: in debates over nuclear disarmament, labour-management disputes, marital conflicts, Calvinist theology, and even in the evolution of disease through the “cooperation” of microorganisms. The possibilities for application are virtually limitless.

The introduction gives the uninitiated reader sufficient background to cope with the technical aspects of the discussions as well as to see how the articles are linked together in an on-going dialectic. Many of the essays are already considered classics in the field; others, not previously published, provide responses to objections that have been made against the authors' earlier positions. Although designed primarily for philosophers and philosophy students, Paradoxes of Rationality and Cooperation has broad implications for other disciplines as well as for interested non-specialists.

Richmond Campbell (editor) is a professor in the philosophy department at Dalhousie University. He is the author of Self-Love and Self-Respect: A Philosophical Study of Egoism (1979). Lanning Sowden (editor) is a Research Fellow at La Trobe University in Australia.