The surprise exam paradox, rationality, and pragmatics: a simple game‐theoretic analysis
Journal of Economic Methodology 15 (3):285-299 (2008)
| Abstract | The surprise exam paradox has attracted the attention of prominent logicians, mathematicians and philosophers for decades. Although the paradox itself has been resolved at least since Quine (1953), some aspects of it are still being discussed. In this paper we propose, following Sober (1998), to translate the paradox into the language of game theory to clarify these aspects. Our main conclusions are that a much simpler game?theoretic analysis of the paradox is possible, which solves most of the puzzles related to it, and that this way of analysing the paradox can also throw light on our comprehension of the pragmatics of linguistic communication. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,653 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesKen Levy (2009). The Solution to the Surprise Exam Paradox. Southern Journal of Philosophy 47 (2):131-158.
Elliott Sober (1998). To Give a Surprise Exam, Use Game Theory. Synthese 115 (3):355-373.
Luc Bovens (1997). The Backward Induction Argument for the Finite Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Surprise Exam Paradox. Analysis 57 (3):179–186.
John N. Williams (2007). The Surprise Exam Paradox. Journal of Philosophical Research 32:67-94.
Graham Priest (2000). The Logic of Backwards Inductions. Economics and Philosophy 16 (2):267-285.
Kenneth G. Ferguson (1991). Equivocation in the Surprise Exam Paradox. Southern Journal of Philosophy 29 (3):291-302.
Zamora Bonilla & P. Jesús (2006). Science Studies and the Theory of Games. Perspectives on Science 14 (4).
Adam Brandenburger & H. Jerome Keisler (2006). An Impossibility Theorem on Beliefs in Games. Studia Logica 84 (2):211 - 240.
Leo K. C. Cheung (2013). On Two Versions of 'the Surprise Examination Paradox'. Philosophia 41 (1):159-170.
Peter Vanderschraaf (2008). Game Theory Meets Threshold Analysis: Reappraising the Paradoxes of Anarchy and Revolution. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 59 (4):579-617.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2012-02-20Total downloads2 ( #232,265 of 548,984 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,327 of 548,984 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
