On Medium: The Gimmick of Game Theory’s Deflation of Morality
Here's an article on why morality isn't as rational as game theory suggests, and why we shouldn't think of morality as prudence or as the result of bargaining or technocratic calculations.
Moral values are based, ideally or essentially speaking, on what is _considered_ true or better to be introduced as norm.
ReplyDeleteMorality is rational??
Can be or not. If a moral value is based on lies or fantasies, will be irrational but it still can be based on some salt of truth, like criminalization of sexual diversity. There is some truth in viewing "homossexuality" as bad than better because this maynegative possible implications for individuals and for society more as a cost than a benefit. But it still irrational because it is being based on homophobe point of view or perspective only, a typical prejudice, opposed of fanaticism, because given subject is being excessively badly viewed or misjudged. Like if "homossexuality" is intrinsically bad even for people who actually identify with and feel better practicing it. It's also about not consider all relevant perspectives there. The feeling or instinctive point of view of empowered homophobes is only taking in consideration while for lgbt people themselves don't. This is a case in which morality is at the best saying, irrational, based on the main criteria that defines rationality, capacity to overcome our instinctive imposition searching for objective truths and then to be really fair.
The question I was getting at is whether it's rational to think of how things ought to be. Ordinarily, rationality is a matter of objectivity: we aim to understand the facts as they are. But morality is about changing the facts or of conforming to an ideal that sets out what's good and bad, right and wrong. The creativity involved in having such ideals and in being so mentally counterfactual doesn't seem to be purely rational--although there are norms and values that govern rationality as a social practice, too.
DeleteUntil I read your essay I wasn't even aware that anyone was suggesting game theory could be used in moral discourse & now that I am aware of it, I'm just dumbfounded. I mean, that's like saying we should use faith to evaluate scientific hypotheses. I don't think game theory can even explain morality, let alone act as a moral guide. It's fine for analyzing & predicting animal behavior, but when applied to the human animal game theory would only work on high functioning sociopaths -- hardly paragons of virtue. It's already failed disastrously as an economic model, but now we should use it to guide our interactions with friends & family? Game theory: a mathematical analysis of evil.
ReplyDeleteThis article was sparked by a couple of extensive discussions I had with a commenter on some of my Medium articles. He goes by the name of "Remarkl" and he recently brought up game theory again in response to my article on conservatism and the ruse of the political spectrum. He does indeed defend game theory and social contract theory as approaches to understanding morality.
DeleteHe'd say, I think, that you're strawmanning the application of game theory. This approach doesn't have to assume that all games are competitive. Game theorists can model cooperation, too, which is what happens under the social contract. Also, they'd say game theory isn't the same as libertarianism or neoclassical economics.
This broadening of game theory led to my point in this article on the theory, which is that the approach can become trivial or unfalsifiable. If it's a way of modelling disagreements about morality that can have various solutions (so that game theory doesn't presuppose what morality will end up being), the approach seems to me a trivial statement of the obvious. And if the model is consistent with both neoclassical and socialist economics, we're dealing here with cognitive tools or mathematical concepts rather than with a falsifiable theory. So "game theory" would be a misleading name since all theories are supposed to be empirical and falsifiable.