Game Survival: A Game Theory Interpretation of Social Phenomena

Author: Pan Tianqun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: This book attempts to interpret human social or collective action using game theory—in my usage, social or collective action refers to interactive groups of people. Readers will find that the actions of human society, originally complex, are easily understandable and reveal underlying principles. This book explains social phenomena, and many of its methods, theories, and examples are from economics, but it is not purely an economics book. If it were purely economics, it would need to use complete economic theories to elaborate and analyze specific research subjects, explaining concepts and principles such as "supply," "demand," "price," "utility," "marginal," etc., otherwise it would be irresponsible to readers. This book strives to explain various social phenomena using scientific methods. Of course, economics is also a science, but it has established research patterns. What we are doing here is simply revealing what lies behind many phenomena. Some parts of this book are "philosophical," and others are "logical." What I want to say is that there are profound "scientific" principles behind the social phenomena we observe—I believe these phenomena are rooted in rationality and logic. If this book can inspire readers, I will be satisfied. As long as readers feel they have gained more than the price they paid for the book, my conscience will be at ease, because I hope that writing this book and readers purchasing it itself constitutes a "cooperative game" rather than a "non-cooperative game."