Dissertation Research: The Politics of Game Theory: Mathematics and Cold War Culture, 1944-1984

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

This Science and Technology Studies Dissertation Improvement Grant will provide funds to enable the doctoral student to collect needed data with the purpose of bringing the student to closer completion of the Ph.D. Funds will support travel to conduct archival research in Washington D.C., Michigan, and London, and to conduct interviews at these locations. The project focuses on a history of game theory as it was developed and imported into many fields of application during the Cold War. It will focus on four contexts that were central to game theory's development during this period and that have profoundly shaped the field of game theory as it exists today: applied mathematics, behavioral science, peace research and conflict resolution, and biology. An examination of game theory in these different contexts will contribute to growing literatures on the history of science during the Cold War, and on the sociology of mathematics and scientific theory. While historians of postwar science have done much to suggest how the conduct and content of ostensibly "pure" science was shaped by the context of the Cold War (and especially military funding), this dissertation will seek to explore the finer texture of Cold War culture and its influence on game theory's development. In understanding these processes, this dissertation will both draw upon and contribute to a growing literature that seeks to understand the relationship between theory, mathematical models, and cultural values and styles of reasoning. Game theory has developed dramatically since John von Neumann and Oskar Morganstern published their seminal Theory of Games and Economic Behavior in 1944. Starting in the late 1940s, mathematicians funded by the U.S. military very rapidly developed the formal structure of game theory and its connections to other ideas in mathematics, such as information theory, cybernetics, and linear programming. In this same period, behavioral scientists began to test game theory's predictions against observed human behavior, thereby leading to a rich tradition of critiques of formal game theoretic and decision-theoretic models in practical contexts. Given game theory's military roots, the early 1960s saw the creation of the closely related specialties of "peace studies" and "conflict resolution" that further developed (especially) non-zero-sum game theory and psychological studies of game-playing behavior. Finally, in the 1960s and 1970s, biologists concerned with animal aggression developed a startling new set of concepts associated with "evolutionary games," an area of research that continues to grow in importance today. This dissertation will argue that game theory developed in these directions because of the cultural and political conditions that characterized the Cold War. Mathematicians crafted a game theory that was responsive to the tactical and logistical problems of their military patrons. For behavioral scientists, game-theoretic investigations of conflict and cooperation were often performed in the context of a broader effort to mathematize human behavior and to lay the foundations for a stable yet democratic Cold War society. The progenitors of peace research turned to game theory in an effort to provide a "scientific" peace-oriented alternative to conventional military-strategic studies, which they often attacked for its alleged misuse of game theory. And finally, for biologists, game theory permitted a neo-Darwinian explanation of puzzling phenomena of animal behavior, such as altruism, that were also important in the peace studies agenda. By examining these episodes, the researcher will shed light on the relationship between scientific theories and the political context of this era. A perspective will be gained on the formation of several schools of game theory that continue to shape scientific knowledge and practical decision-making today, as well as a broader understanding of the relationship between mathematical models and human values.