13 - Moral Philosophy and Practical Problems of Strategy

Abstract

Human beings generally handle complex strategic problems by satisficing, that is, by searching long enough to find strategies that are satisfactory or that suffice. Strategic choices in everyday life, as they affect other people, often raise moral problems. There are important limitations to what can be said about moral problems within the conceptual framework of game theory, but the theory focuses on existing problems in moral philosophy. The chapter discusses the strategic implications of rationality and the pursuit of self-interest. The concept of rationality, as it is normally interpreted by contemporary philosophers, appears to break down in the Prisoner's Dilemma game and the N-person Prisoner's Dilemma. The chapter reviews several attempts by philosophers to come to grips with this and other related problems. Game theory elucidates Kant's essentially strategic ideas and also reveals some limitations of his principle.