A simplified taxonomy of 2 × 2 games

All 2 × 2 games are classified into eight configurations, following three natural criteria, and prototypes given for each, especially as concerns the Newcomb and chain-store paradoxes. Two pseudo-dynamic properties, move priority and dynamic inconsistency, are examined in that framework, as well as more specifically, the problem of the origin of social institutions.     

Instrumental rationality and cognitive rationality

Beside instrumental rationality, concerned with consistency between available means and pursued objectives, cognitive rationality, concerned with consistency between current beliefs and detained information, is nowadays bursting in economic theory. For an individual decision, the two notions are expressed structurally in similar forms, but they heavily interact in the deliberation process, especially when the agent is searching relevant information on his environment and his own determiners. In a game framework, the players' representations are formalized in a more and more sophisticated way, and are closely interwoven with their preferences in contemporary equilibrium notions as well as in selection between corresponding equilibrium points.     

Sleeping Beauty and the absent-minded driver

The Sleeping Beauty problem is presented in a formalized framework which summarizes the underlying probability structure. The two rival solutions proposed by Elga (Analysis 60:143–147, 2000) and Lewis (Analysis 61:171–176, 2001) differ by a single parameter concerning her prior probability. They can be supported by considering, respectively, that Sleeping Beauty is “fuzzy-minded” and “blank-minded”, the first interpretation being more natural than the second. The traditional absent-minded driver problem is reinterpreted in this framework and sustains Elga’s solution.