An Ultra-Refined Grammar for Interactions: Thoughts on Robert Aumann’s Philosophy of Game Theory

Alexander Linsbichler

Revue économique, 2023, vol. 74, issue 4, 635-650

Abstract: This note identifies and comments on selected crucial traits of Robert Aumann?s philosophy of game theory. In doing so, it aims at carving out and expressing some notions tacitly held by many working game theorists and ideally even at triggering subsequent reflection on the philosophy of game theory in general. According to my reconstruction of Aumann?s position, sophisticated, relatively precise rules of language?an ultra-refined grammar for interactions?constitute the heart of game theory. Consequently, the heart of game theory is devoid, or almost devoid, of empirical content. The final section proposes a nomenclature for lucidly discussing the relationships between theories, different types of models, and ?the real world? and employs it to explicate and slightly amend Aumann?s remarks on the role of truth and fruitfulness in game theory. JEL Codes: A13, B31, B41, C70, C79, D80.

Keywords: Robert Aumann; game theory; truth; models; understanding; analyticity; empirical content (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 B31 B41 C70 C79 D80 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cairn.info/load_pdf.php?ID_ARTICLE=RECO_744_0635 (application/pdf)
http://www.cairn.info/revue-economique-2023-4-page-635.htm (text/html)
free

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cai:recosp:reco_744_0635

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Revue économique from Presses de Sciences-Po
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jean-Baptiste de Vathaire ().