Paradoxes of rationality and cooperation : prisoner's dilemma and Newcomb's problem /

This book is an instructive presentation of the philosophical controversies initiated by the two principal contemporary paradoxes of choice, as well as indicating the directions of recent research on the prisoner's dilemma and Newcomb's problem. This collection of 20 essays (most have been published previously) is particularly well suited for selected graduate students and faculty in philosophy. Undergraduates, on the other hand, will find the book less beneficial, although some accessible, albeit far from elementary, writing is included. For example, the first essay, ``Background for the Uninitiated,'' deserves wide reading. But as a rule the papers are highly technical-forbiddingly so for all but a few undergraduates. The expressed wish of the editors to show how the paradoxes have implications for a variety of disciplines (psychology, economics, biology, and others) is unfortunately not fulfilled in any detail. The writers of the essays come from many disciplines, but the disciplinary implications of the writing is implicit.-C.E. Quest, California State University, Long Beach