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This carefully argued, lucid work defends a traditional conception of morality as a rational constraint on pursuing individual interest. Gauthier contends that rational cooperation is central to morality and he formulates a principle of agreement based upon a game-theoretic account of bargaining. Using the Prisoner's Dilemma, he argues for the rationality of complying with the principle from an initial noncoercive bargaining position in which one may better oneself provided that doing so does not worsen the condition of the person upon whom one acts. Gauthier concludes that commitment to rational cooperation not only assures fairness but also yields greater net utility than a policy of exclusive self-interest. Highly recommended for large philosophy collections.
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MORALS BY AGREEMENT DAVID GAUTHIER Professor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh CLARENDON PRESS • OXFORD -iiiOxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paolo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © David Gauthier 1986 First published 1986 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. Within the UK, exceptions are allowed in respect of any fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms and in other countries should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Gauthier, David P. Morals by agreement. Includes index. 1. Ethics 2. Contracts 3. Cooperation. I. Title. BJ1012.G38 1985 171'.5 85-15519 ISBN 0-19-824992-6 (Pbk)
9 10 8 Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd Guildford and King's Lynn -ivPREFACE THE present enquiry began on a November afternoon in Los Angeles when, fumbling for words in which to express the peculiar relationship between morality and advantage, I was shown the Prisoner's Dilemma. (The unfamiliar reader will be shown it in section 3.2 of Chapter III.) Almost nineteen years later, I reflect on the course of a voyage that is not, and cannot be, completed, but that finds a temporary harbour in this book. The Prisoner's Dilemma posed a problem, rather than solving one. The problem concerns practical rationality, understood in maximizing terms, and it is resolved, or so I now think, in Chapter VI. It proved to be the second of three core problems that required resolution before my enquiry could issue in this book. The first was to formulate the principle of rational cooperation, which I believe is central to morality. In my account, this principle is related to a rational agreement or bargain, and I was able to develop a gametheoretic treatment of bargaining, which has evolved i