Paradoxical Effects of Social Behavior

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XVI

   PDF

2. Individual Utilities and Utilitarian Ethics

   • John C. Harsanyi

   Pages 1-12

3. Some Paradoxes in Economics

   • Ole Hagen

   Pages 13-25

4. Pragmatic Intuitions and Rational Choice

   • Russell Hardin

   Pages 27-36

5. Guidelines for Solving Sen’s Paradox

   • Eckehart Köhler

   Pages 37-46

6. System Breaks and Positive Feedback as Sources of Catastrophe

   • Kenneth E. Boulding

   Pages 47-54

7. Social Structure and the Emergence of Norms among Rational Actors

   • James S. Coleman

   Pages 55-83

8. Conditions for Cooperation in Problematic Social Situations

   • Werner Raub, Thomas Voss

   Pages 85-103

9. The Evolution of Reciprocal Cooperation

   • Rudolf A. Schüßler

   Pages 105-121

10. Is it Always Efficient to be Nice? A Computer Simulation of Axelrod’s Computer Tournament

    • Christian Donninger

    Pages 123-134

11. The Prisoner’s Dilemma and its Evolutionary Iteration

    • Werner Leinfellner

    Pages 135-148

12. The Evolution of a Prisoner’s Dilemma in the Market

    • Karl-Dieter Opp

    Pages 149-167

13. On Explaining the Rise of the New Social Movements in Germany

    • Lucian Kern, Hans-Georg Räder

    Pages 169-185

14. Volunteer’s Dilemma. A Social Trap without a Dominant Strategy and some Empirical Results

    • Andreas Diekmann

    Pages 187-197

15. Take-Some Games: The Commons Dilemma and a Land of Cockaigne

    • Peter Mitter

    Pages 199-208

16. Games with Perceptive Commanders but with Indoctrinated or Less Perceptive Subordinates

    • Martin Shubik

    Pages 209-222

17. Moral Sentiments and Self-Interest Reconsidered

    • Manfred J. Holler

    Pages 223-233

18. On the Economic Virtues of Incompetency and Dishonesty

    • Andrew Schotter

    Pages 235-241

19. New Chairman Paradoxes

    • Steven J. Brams, Dan S. Felsenthal, Zeev Maoz

    Pages 243-256

20. Cumulative Effects of Sequential Decisions in Organizations

    • Jeroen Weesie, Reinhard Wippler

    Pages 257-279

In the history of science "paradoxes" are not only amusing puzzles and chal­ lenges to the human mind but also driving forces of scientific development. The notion of "paradox" is intimately related to the notion of "contradiction". Logi­ cal paradoxes allow for the derivation of contradictory propositions (e.g. "Rus­ sell's set of all sets not being members of themselves" or the ancient problem with propositions like "I am lying" 1), normative paradoxes deal with contradic­ tions among equally well accepted normative postulates (Arrow's "impossibility theorem", Sen's "Impossibility of a Paretian Liberal") and "factual" paradoxes refer to conflicts between conventional opinion based on an accepted empirical theory and contradictory empirical evidence (e.g. the "St. Petersburg paradox" or the "Allais paradox" in decision theory2). Paradoxes, either logical, normative or factual, also contradict our intui­ tions. The counter-intuitive property which seems to be a common feature of all paradoxes plays an important part in the empirical social sciences, particularly in the old research tradition of scrutinizing the unintended consequences of pur­ posive actions. Expectations based on naive theories ignoring interdependencies between individual actions are very often in conflict with "surprising" empirical evidence on collective results of social behavior. Examples are numerous reach­ ing from panic situations, the individual struggle for status gains resulting in collective deprivation, the less than optimal supply of collective goods etc. to global problems of the armament race and mismanagement of common resources.

• Computer
• Evolution
• Moral
• Nation
• decision theory
• economics
• history of science
• management
• rational choice
• simulation

• Institut für Soziologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München 40, Germany

  Andreas Diekmann

• Abteilung für Mathematische Methoden und Computerverfahren, Instituts für Höhere Studien, Wien, Austria

  Peter Mitter

Policies and ethics