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Game Theory As A Model For Business And Business Ethics

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  • Solomon, Robert C.

Abstract

Fifty years ago, two Princeton professors established game theory as an important new branch of applied mathematics. Game theory has become a celebrated discipline in its own right, and it now plays a prestigious role in many disciplines, including ethics, due in particular to the neo-Hobbesian thinking of David Gauthier and others. Now it is perched at the edge of business ethics. I believe that it is dangerous and demeaning. It makes us look the wrong way at business, reinforcing a destructive obsession with measurable outcomes and a false sense of competition. It falsely characterizes or insidiously advocates a style of human behavior that is utterly unacceptable. To put the matter quite crudely, a person who actually practiced the form of “rationality” advocated by game theory would be something of a monster. We should not ask for more precision than a subject is capable of giving us. — Aristotle, (384–322 B.C.E.) Nicomachean Ethics Bk. 1 Not that you won or lost—but how you played the game. — Grantland Rice (1880–1954) “Alumnus Football”

Suggested Citation

  • Solomon, Robert C., 1999. "Game Theory As A Model For Business And Business Ethics," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 11-29, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:9:y:1999:i:01:p:11-29_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Mark Alfano & Hannes Rusch & Matthias Uhl, 2018. "Ethics, Morality, and Game Theory," Games, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-4, April.
    2. Maurice Hamington, 2009. "Business is not a Game: The Metaphoric Fallacy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 86(4), pages 473-484, June.
    3. Cavagnetto Stefano & Gahir Bruce, 2014. "Game Theory - Its Applications to Ethical Decision Making," CRIS - Bulletin of the Centre for Research and Interdisciplinary Study, Sciendo, vol. 2014(1), pages 1-19, January.

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