Abstract

Developed in the mid‐twentieth century, game theory is a mathematical discipline that now drives fields as diverse as warfare, economics, evolutionary theory, and foreign policy. This chapter explores the importance of understanding others to Ender's military brilliance. For Ender, this understanding was not merely intellectual, but also emotional. The chapter also shows how Ender's instinctive ability to understand his enemies places him in a prime position, according to game theory, to redefine the game to create a path to victory. This is the lesson that Ender's Game teaches about how to find a path to victory even when one doesn't seem to exist. For Ender, at least, it seems that sympathy, empathy, and love are not fundamentally different. Instead, they lie on a continuum. Love and sympathy, experienced simultaneously, allow empathy.