Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'works', 'Vague Identity: Evans misunderstood' and 'The Evolution of Co-Operation'

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4 ideas

7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 10. Vagueness / d. Vagueness as linguistic

16458	Semantic vagueness involves alternative and equal precisifications of the language [Lewis]
	Full Idea: If vagueness is semantic indeterminacy, then wherever we have vague statements, we have several alternative precisifications of the vague language involved, all with equal claims of being 'intended'.
	From: David Lewis (Vague Identity: Evans misunderstood [1988], p.318)

22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / e. Human nature

7667	There are two sides to men - the pleasantly social, and the violent and creative [Diderot, by Berlin]
	Full Idea: Diderot is among the first to preach that there are two men: the artificial man, who belongs in society and seeks to please, and the violent, bold, criminal instinct of a man who wishes to break out (and, if controlled, is responsible for works of genius.
	From: report of Denis Diderot (works [1769], Ch.3) by Isaiah Berlin - The Roots of Romanticism
	A reaction: This has an obvious ancestor in Plato's picture (esp. in 'Phaedrus') of the two conflicting sides to the psuché, which seem to be reason and emotion. In Diderot, though, the suppressed man has virtues, which Plato would deny.

23. Ethics / B. Contract Ethics / 8. Contract Strategies

22725	When players don't meet again, defection is the best strategy [Axelrod]
	Full Idea: When players will never meet again, the strategy of defection is the only stable strategy.
	From: Robert Axelrod (The Evolution of Co-Operation [1984], 5)
	A reaction: This gives good grounds for any community's mistrust of transient strangers, such as tourists. And yet any sensible tourist will want communities to trust tourists, and will therefore behave in a reliable way.

22724	Good strategies avoid conflict, respond to hostility, forgive, and are clear [Axelrod]
	Full Idea: Successful game strategies avoid unnecessary conflict, are provoked by an uncalled for defection, forgive after a provocation, and behave clearly so the other player can adapt.
	From: Robert Axelrod (The Evolution of Co-Operation [1984], 1)
	A reaction: [compressed] Exactly what you would expect from a nice but successful school teacher. The strategies for success in these games is the same as the rules for educating a person into cooperative behaviour. TIT FOR TAT does all these.