The Prisoners Dilemma
I wasn’t sure if I’d heard this one before when asked but after hearing about the Prisoners dilemma I realised I had.
Basically, we were given two playing cards, one red the other black and had to play a game, I wont go into the amounts of points because for the purpose of the dilemma the statistics in the card game we play don’t add up with principle, thus rendering the game pointless.
So, two cards. With another person decide which card to put down and bot showing the other person. The red card will get you maximum points (the object of this game) unless the other person also puts down the red card. If that happens, neither get any points. With the black card you’ll receive half of the maximum points if your opponent also has the black card, otherwise you will lose that amount of points from any total you might have.
As I say, the object of the game was to get as many points as possible. After playing quite a few hands it becomes apparent that people working together will consistently gain more points, ie continually putting the black card down as long the other player does the same will earn half the maximum points for both. Remember, the object of the game is to gain as many points as possible NOT necessarily to get more than the other person.
Read about the Prisoners dilemma here
The point of the object was to show that over time cooperation is the better option, that thinking of other, perhaps being altruistic is or can be in our own self-interest.
This is one of the points raised about enlightened egotism in Plato’s Republic.
See Also
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- » Reciprocal Altruism The Excerise
» Totalitarian
» Ethics
» Values
» Morality As Constitutive Of Self Interest The Greeks
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