WHY SHOULD WE TEAM REASON?. (6th February 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Browne, Katharine
• Is Part Of: Economics and philosophy. Volume 34:Number 2(2018:Jul.)
• Page Start: 185
• Page End: 198
• Publication Date: 2018-02-06
• Subjects: Cooperation, -- coordination, -- Hi-Lo game, -- Prisoner's Dilemma, -- team reasoning; Economics -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; 330.01
• DOI: 10.1017/S0266267117000347
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0266-2671

Abstract

Abstract: Team reasoning is thought to be descriptively and normatively superior to the classical individualistic theory of rational choice primarily because it can recommend coordination on Hi in the Hi-Lo game and cooperation in Prisoner's Dilemma-type situations. However, left unanswered is whether it is rational for individuals to become team members, leaving a gap between reasons for individuals and reasons for team members. In what follows, I take up Susan Hurley's attempt to show that it is rational for an individual to become a team member. I argue that her account fails to show that becoming a team member is necessary to gain the advantages of coordination in Hi-Lo games or cooperation in Prisoner's Dilemma-type situations, and that individuals will often fare better reasoning as individual agents than as members of a team. I argue further that there is a more general problem for team reasoning, specifically that the conditions needed to make it rational for a team member to employ team reasoning make becoming a team member unnecessary.