Austen’s Foundations of Game Theory
Austen’s Foundations of Game Theory
This chapter examines Jane Austen's foundations of game theory. Drawing on Austen's six novels, it considers how she carefully establishes game theory's core concepts: choice, preferences, and strategic thinking. A person's preferences are best revealed by her choices, and strategic thinking has several names, including “penetration.” Austen illustrates (the lack of) strategic thinking through her strategic sophomores, characters who think they are skilled but are not. Austen's strategically skilled characters know how to detect a person's preferences by observing their eyes. An inability to make choices can stem from a lack of resolution, which is consistently denounced by Austen. The chapter also discusses Austen's views on commensurability and the idea of “revealed preference” as well as her use of specific terms to refer to strategic thinking, including “penetration,” “foresight,” and “sagacity.”
Keywords: choice, Jane Austen, game theory, novels, preferences, strategic thinking, strategic sophomores, commensurability, foresight, sagacity
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