Mathematical Models, Rational Choice, and the Search for Cold War Culture
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3603330 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paul Erickson (0000-0002-0187-694X, Wesleyan University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 101 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 386-392 |
| Publication date | 2010-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Isis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-1753 • E-ISSN: 1545-6994 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/653105 |
| PMID | 20718279 |
| OpenAlex | W2012459847 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 17 |
A key feature of the social, behavioral, and biological sciences after World War II has been the widespread adoption of new mathematical techniques drawn from cybernetics, information theory, and theories of rational choice. Historians of science have typically sought to explain this adoption either by reference to military patronage, or to a characteristic Cold War culture or discursive framework strongly shaped by the concerns of national security. This essay explores several episodes in the history of game theory--a mathematical theory of rational choice--that demonstrate the limits of such explanations. Military funding was indeed critical to game theory's early development in the 1940s. However, the theory's subsequent spread across disciplines ranging from political science to evolutionary biology was the result of a diverse collection of debates about the nature of "rationality" and "choice" that marked the Cold War era. These debates are not easily reduced to the national security imperatives that have been the focus of much historiography to date
Cold war · Cybernetics · Economics · Epistemology · Game theory · Historiography · Mathematical economics · National security · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Rational choice theory (criminology · Rationality · Social science · Sociology · History of Science and Medicine · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Philosophy, Science, and History
Social Psychology
The Diffusion of Scientific Innovations
Livelihoods of theory
Cold War Social Science
Circulation
Enhancing the function of case studies
The diffusion of scientific innovations
Seeing Like a State” in the Postwar Era
The Game Theory of Sex
Uncovering the metaphysics of psychological warfare
"In Accordance with a "More Majestic Order
Commitment, Cold War, and the battles of the self
No More Than Exchanging Tools
The Role of Narratives in Transferring Rational Choice Models into Political Science
The science of ethics
Drawing Theories Apart
The Closed World
The Logic of Animal Conflict
Behind Quantum Electronics
Bargaining, communication, and limited war
How Economics Forgot History
"Our First Line of Defense"
The heuristics of war
Cybernetics and the machinery of rationality
Masters of Theory
Nuclear weapons and limited war
Three Approaches to Big Technology
The Ontology of the Enemy
| Unique citing works | 15 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,94 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2025 (16) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 15 |