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Common Knowledge and Davis's Argument from Symmetry in the Prisoner's Dilemma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2010

Richard Reiner
Richard Reiner
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Extract

Lawrence H. Davis (1977, 1985) has formulated and defended a version of the argument from symmetry for the non-iterated Prisoner's Dilemma that attempts to show that under certain conditions the rationally prescribed course of action in this game is co-operation. The argument runs as follows below. (I have prefixed a ‘D’ to each of Davis's numbers here, and in subsequent references, in order to avoid confusion as I refer to his points.)

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Articles
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Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , Spring 1995 , pp. 281 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1995

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