3 Review(s)

Game Theory And Strategy by Philip D. Straffin Jr. is a comprehensive book on the mathematical theory of conflict, also known as game theory. Summary Of The Book Philip D. Straffin Jr. taught a course on Game Theory and Strategy at the interdisciplinary division of the Beloit College and the book Game Theory And Strategy is an outcome of that course. He taught not only students from mathematics and science backgrounds, but also the ones from the streams of psychology, government, and economics. Therefore, his book focuses on the most vital aspects of mathematical game theory in an interdisciplinary milieu. Game Theory And Strategy is strategically divided into three parts to provide a complete coverage of the topic. Though it requires the knowledge of just high school algebra, the author builds up to a kind of sophisticated mathematical thinking for readers. Each of the three parts of the book is further organized into various chapters. The first part is about Two-Person Zero-Sum Games and it deals with Game Trees, The Nature of Games, Games against Nature, Utility Theory, Matrix Games and their applications in Philosophy, Warfare, and Business. The second part of the book is devoted to Two-Person Non-Zero-Sum Games. Here, the author includes detailed explanation on the Prisoner's Dilemma, Nash Equilibria and Non-Cooperative solutions, Strategic Moves, the Nash Arbitration scheme, its cooperative solutions, and its applications in Biology, Social Psychology, Economics, and Business. The last part deals with N-Person Games. In this section, Straffin discusses the Nucleolus and the Gately point, Bargaining sets, N-Person Prisoner's dilemma, Imputations, domination, and stable set, the Shapley value and its applications in Athletics, Politics, and Anthropology. The last chapter of this section describes the value of game theory to summarize the contents of the entire volume. Written with an aim to reach many, the author has clearly explained and emphasized the key concepts of game theory. The book not only sheds light on the innate character of mathematics, but also explores how this one subject could be applied to a wide variety of real-life problems. Thus, Game Theory And Strategy provides an introductory platform to axiomatic mathematical thinking as well as mathematical modeling’s elemental process. Published by The Mathematical Association of America, the main aim of the text is to highlight the various important applications of game theory and most significantly in different disciplines. About Philip D. Straffin Jr. Philip D. Straffin Jr. is an author. Some of the books written by him besides this book are Applications Of Calculus and Topics In The Theory Of Voting. Straffin completed his B.A. from Harvard in the year 1965 and received his Ph.D. from Berkeley. Since 1970, he has been working as a professor at Beloit College, where he teaches Mathematics. His versatility in this subject can be seen from the variety of books he has published,ranging from game theory and dynamical systems to algebraic topology and the theory of voting. For his contributions as a teacher, he has been honored with MAA’s Award for Distinguished College Teaching of Mathematics, Beloit College’s Teacher of the Year, and MAA’s Allendoerfer Award.