Introduction: The Four Temperaments and the Four Games

In this book, I suggest that if we bring together the modern system of game theory with the classical system of the temperaments, or passions, we can make progress in understanding our ethical nature, which is not possible with either system alone. In realizing how happiness, anger, calm, and shame all help us solve social games, we can attain a better grasp of the logic of human social interactions and of all kinds of social interactions, including our sometimes frustrating, sometimes satisfying interactions with nonhuman actors, such as software programs and organizations. Together with other people, we can draw on our intuitions, our emotions, and our reason to do a better job in creating Harmony1 with people, with nature, and with our material and abstract creations, in different moods—tranquil, compliant, competitive, and, especially, happy.