Description
Book SynopsisRichard Tuck makes careful distinctions between the prisoner’s dilemma problem, threshold phenomena such as voting, and free riding. He analyzes the notion of negligibility, and shows some of the logical difficulties in the idea—and how the ancient paradox of the sorites illustrates the difficulties.
Trade ReviewThis is a hugely interesting book that will almost certainly start a controversy. It addresses some of the widest assumptions in contemporary economic and social thought and calls them into question; and it provides a very illuminating history of the appearance of those assumptions. -- Philip Pettit, Princeton University
Original, full of good ideas and insights, Richard Tuck's
Free Riding could initiate an important debate about the least human of the human sciences. -- John Ferejohn, Stanford University
Table of Contents* Preface * Introduction: Olson's Problem Part I: Philosophy * the Prisoners' Dilemma * Voting and Other Thresholds * Negligibility Conclusion to Part I Part II: History * Rule-and Act-Utilitarianism * Perfect Competition, Oligopoly and Monopoly Conclusion to Part II * Index
