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From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: net.sci,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Prisoner's Dilemma
Message-ID: <2202@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 29-Mar-86 18:10:54 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.2202
Posted: Sat Mar 29 18:10:54 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Apr-86 00:59:57 EST
References: <12481@ucbvax.BERKEL <2007@brl-smoke.ARPA> <538@umich.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.ARPA
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL)
Lines: 28
Xref: watmath net.sci:682 net.philosophy:4834

In article <538@umich.UUCP> torek@zippy-de-do-dah.UUCP (Paul V. Torek ) writes:
>In article <2007@brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn@brl.ARPA writes:
>>Many years ago, Anatol Rapoport had a Scientific American article
>>on games such as The Prisoner's Dilemma, in which he too tried to
>>argue against the logical conclusion of basic game theory,
>
>What conclusion is that, and what alternative did he propose?
>
>Anticipatory hint:  what conclusions you draw depends on what premises
>you start with...

That's what was so infuriating.  Rapoport explicitly formulated
a "game" under the standard rules (non-cooperative, etc.), then
argued against the standard strategy on psychological grounds.
In particular, the existence of a large mutual payoff in one
element of the matrix that would in fact not be attained by
players following recommended strategies somehow bothered him.
It is clear that IF cooperation was allowed (it was prohibited)
and IF there was a means of enforcing the cooperation, THEN the
best mutual combined strategy would be to select the matrix
element that Rapoport wanted.  However, he tried to argue for a
"higher rationality" that would lead to that result in the
absence of cooperation and enforcement.  No logical basis for
his desired reasoning methods was given; to me, it was a blatant
attempt to pretend that there is a rational basis for socialism.

P.S.  This isn't strictly the same game as Prisoner's Dilemma,
but the same sort of pseudo-arguments were being employed.