by Game theory and the shaping of neoliberal capitalism Neoliberal subjectivity arises from the intricate pedagogy of game theory that comes to the fore in the Prisoner’s Dilemma game and is interchangeable with contemporary paradigmatic instrumental rationality. Rational choice is promoted as an exhaustive science of decision making, but only by smuggling in a characteristic confusion suggesting that everything of value to agents can be reflected in their appraisal of existential worth even though this is patently not the case in life viewed as a ‘fixed game.’ Without a critical and scrupulous pedagogy that carefully identifies as optional the assumptions necessary to operationalize strategic rationality, a new neoliberal understanding of capitalism
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Lars Pålsson Syll considers the following as important: Economics
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Game theory and the shaping of neoliberal capitalism
Neoliberal subjectivity arises from the intricate pedagogy of game theory that comes to the fore in the Prisoner’s Dilemma game and is interchangeable with contemporary paradigmatic instrumental rationality. Rational choice is promoted as an exhaustive science of decision making, but only by smuggling in a characteristic confusion suggesting that everything of value to agents can be reflected in their appraisal of existential worth even though this is patently not the case in life viewed as a ‘fixed game.’ Without a critical and scrupulous pedagogy that carefully identifies as optional the assumptions necessary to operationalize strategic rationality, a new neoliberal understanding of capitalism will dominate the worldview of the student of game theory and inhabitant of neoliberal institutions.
When criticising game theory you often get the rather uninformative and vacuous answer that we all have to remember that game theory — as is mainstream neoclassical theory at large — is nothing but ‘as-if-theory’ built on ‘as-if-rationality.’ As Ariel Rubinstein has it, however, this only shows that “the phrase ‘as if’ is a way to avoid taking responsibility for the strong assumptions upon which economic models are founded” …