Evolution of the Social Contract

Rating:
Summary: Subtle and surprisingly casual- a really entertaining book.
Review: I originally picked up this book due to a glowing print review given to it by Freeman Dyson and I wasn't at all disapointed. I found it to be a really remarkably in-depth treatment of the subject matter considering the relatively meager length and yet it was simple, direct and unpretentious. ( I would preface this book, however, with a more inclusive work on Game theory if you're interested. It's not necessary to understand the thesis or learn from the experiments but there are many principal concepts in Game theory that he never defines completely- such as Nash Equilibrium. I suggest William Poundstone's "The Prisoner's Dilemma")

I think the final chapter is one of the most compelling explanations available in print of how differential reproduction can and does most frequently create environments where individuals of a species engage in activities that benefit the group at their own personal expense. He leads directly to the point of any given chapter without beating you over the head with it and by the time you get there, you realize that it was without resorting to extensive technical language or drawing on a huge number of oblique studies. It probably doesn't need to be said that this book doesn't provide much to the "rational choice social contract" thinkers and I think the title is more than enough to steer them away, anyway.

In summary, I think this book would be of tremendous interest to anyone interested in Game theory, Theoretical mathematics, sociology, political science, microeconomics or any of a number of different fields specifically because of the author's aversion to distilling the ideas presented in the book into a misleading one sentence conclusion. If you're looking for a brief yet salient discussion of the subject matter, this is both.

Rating:
Summary: This theorist should quietly admit ignorance
Review: Skyrms - This note is directed to you, more so than the potential buyer - but buyer please beware. The human speices, at times, appears to be a particularly gullible one. No where is this more evident in the particular than with the case of our dear Brian Skyrms. May I first give him praise for becoming involved in a set of experiences that may hold some great merit. Social interaction, the origin of meaning, evolutionary development - these are just some of the seemingly important subjects that Skyrms touches on. To bring them notice may be to do some likely good.
It is here that the positive section of the review comes to a close. Skyrms shows his to be a particularly undisciplined and undignified mind, not in subject but in manner of thinking. My analysis need go no further than his commentary on "The Evolution of Meaning". In my opinion this painfully dogmatic way of thought comes to its apex in the following quote: "These theorists should quietly go out of business." pg 81
Well Mr. Skyrms why should you condemn another thinker so harshly unless to hide the insecurity of your own process of thought. In this review I claim no absolute authority, only personal belief. If you wish them out of business I read the implication to be that they cease creating such skeptical thoughts. Do you then consider worthless the contributions of these thinkers - 'these thinkers' who you choose not to mention by name in this section but only class them together as "literary critical theorists" in what may prove to be your own private hallucination. You claim to want doubt but it appears that you want a safe and bounded doubt. A doubt that you can cast aside when you become scared of the dark simply because you wish to fool yourself rather than be afraid. From my reading of this text you appear to be a coward. Neither do you face your enemies or your own doubts. To be publishing in this state of memetic disjuncture is to do the public harm. In my experience the consumer of ideas is flooded with information - please choose to add some thought that has a higher likelihood of proving valuable. Mr. Skyrms may you begin publishing in earnest in your next effort.

Christopher Camp