Re: Article in the Chronicle of Higher Education

["J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>]

Bruce,
       Well, the last of my late father's  seven books was
entitled _Independence Proofs Simplified_.  It dealt with
his work on logic from the 1930s when he proved the most
widely used version of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem,
known in some circles as the Godel-Rosser Theorem.
Just for the record, although he was involved heavily with
deductivist and ultra-pure math in the 1930s, he later
became more of an applied mathematician.
       As for Binmore's book, I think people should check it
out themselves.  He is originally a mathematician, and the
book is pitched at philosophers and political scientists at
least as much, if not more, than at economists.
Barkley Rosser (Jr.)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Bruce R. McFarling" <Bruce.McFarling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 8:55 PM
Subject: Re: Article in the Chronicle of Higher Education


> On Thu, 30 Jan 2003 13:12:36 -0500,
> "J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>,
> and I would not be surprised if he bore a
> genetic relationship with the auther of
> Existence Proofs Simplified, wrote:
>
> >     For a more profound discussion that is based
> >on evolutionary game theory, and thus ultimately on
> >the Nash equilibrium concept, I would suggest Ken
> >Binmore's two volume _Game Theory and the Social
> >Contract_, if I have that right.  Very serious
> >stuff.
>
> It seems to me that what makes evolutionary game
> theory fruitful in biology is the ability to specify
> the payoffs in empirically sensible terms that
> directly feed back into the strategies likely to be
> encountered.
>
> The fact that some of it involves some mathematics
> and therefore promises to provide work for some
> of the economists currently wasting their time
> with utility maxmising fantasies is merely a
> side benefit.
>
>
>