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Von Neumann, J. (1928). "Sur la theorie des jeux", in "Comptes Rendus.", Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1928, volume 186. Bound in a good, solid, library cloth. The volume contains 961pp, January to 25 June, 1928. Cloth binding has seen some better days (as you can see in the pics). Also the text is slightly browned and has an old vertical fold in places that you can see if you're looking for it. Also, a few ex-library marks from a library in Baltimore. That said this wristbender's binding is very tight and usable. Altogether, I'd give this an "Okay", a 4 or 5 out of 10 rating. GOOD overall. (I'm selling a somewhat nicer copy also to be found on ABE. [++] This is a preliminary note (3pp) in the Comptes Rendus on game theory preceding the first edition of von Neumann's fundamental first paper on the subject. The CR paper by von Neumann is listed first chronologically to the major paper in the Mathematischen Annalen "Zur theorie der gesellschaftsspiele" vol 100, pp295-320, according to Tinne Hoff Kjeldsen in "John von Neumann's Conception of the Minimax Theorem: A Journey Through Different Mathematical Contexts" in Archive for History of Exact Sciences Vol. 56, No. 1 (November 2001).[++] …in the 1920s John von Neumann single-handedly invented game theory, introducing the general mathematical concept of 'strategy' in a paper on games of chance. This contained the proof of his famous 'minimax' theorem that says 'a strategy exists that guarantees, for each player, a maximum payoff assuming that the adversary acts so as to minimize that payoff . Jeremy Norman, Origins of Cyberspace, 953. [++] ["The Mathematische Annalen paper].presents some of his [von N] most fecund and influential work. It was Borel, in a note in the Comptes-Rendus in 1921, who first formulated a mathematical scheme describing strategies in a game between two players. The subject can, however, be dated as really originating in the paper of von Neumann. It is there that the fundamental "minimax" theorem is proved and the general scheme of a game between n players (n^2) is formulated. Such schemata, quite apart from their interest and applications to actual games in economics, etc. introduced a wealth of novel combinatorial problems of purely mathematical interest.--S. Ulam in his obituary for von Neumann in Biographical Memoirs. [++] "The name game theory , in the specific form of theorie des jeux seems to have been first used by Emil Borel in the 1920s. Then von Neumann used that name also when publishing in Comptes Rendus and providing the proof of the key minimax theorem that Borel had notably failed to prove."--IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications ( Volume: 26, Issue: 7, September 2008) [++] *Note: 1928 was a very busy and productive year for von Neumann. His first published work is in 1922, followed by 11 more papers to 1927; in 1928 and 1929 (and 1932) he publishes 10 papers per year. **Note 2: von Neumann uses the word "jeux" ("game") in this paper, compared to "der gesellschaftsspiele", or "parlor game", in the Math. Annalen paper. ***Note 3: in the opening paragraph of this paper von Neumann references Borel's 1924 probability book and his 1927 CR paper, though not the earliest work in the CR for 1921.
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