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Reciprocity, Altruism and the Civil Society

In Praise of Heterogeneity

Hardcover

Published: 1st July 2008
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The main emphasis of this new book from Luigino Bruni is a praise of heterogeneity, arguing that society works when different people are able to cooperate in many different ways. The author engages in a novel approach to reciprocity looking at its different forms in society, from cautious or contractual interactions, to the reciprocity of friendship to unconditional behaviour.

Bruni'ss historical-methodological analysis of reciprocity is a way of examining the interface between political economy and the issue of sociality, generally characterized by 'two hundred years of solitude' of the homo economicus. This historical analysis exposes an absence and this book looks at the reasons why among the many forms of reciprocity present in the civil life economics has chosen to deal just with the simplest ones (contracts and repeated self-interested interactions). The second part of the book is an analysis (with repeated and evolutionary games) of the interactions of the three forms of reciprocity faced with a forth strategy; the non-reciprocity.

The current debate on economics and reciprocityp. 1
Homo oeconomicus' two hundred years of solitudep. 13
A first form of reciprocity: cooperation without benevolencep. 27
Reciprocity as philiap. 38
Unconditional reciprocityp. 46
Dynamics of reciprocity in a heterogeneous worldp. 59
Three is better than twop. 68
In praise of heterogeneityp. 79
Reciprocity is one, but reciprocities are manyp. 86
Appendicesp. 98
Notesp. 124
Bibliographyp. 149
Indexp. 155
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 9780415428583
ISBN-10: 0415428580
Series: Routledge Advances in Game Theory
Audience: Tertiary; University or College
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 176
Published: 1st July 2008
Dimensions (cm): 23.4 x 15.6  x 23.495
Weight (kg): 0.404