A common reaction of someone caught in a Prisoner's Dilemma is that "there ought to be a law against this sort of thing."
In fact, getting out of Prisoner's Dilemmas is one of the primary functions of government: to make sure that when individuals do not have private incentives to cooperate, they will be required to do the socially useful thing anyway. Laws are passed to cause people to pay their taxes, not to steal, and to honor contracts with strangers. Each of these activities could be regarded as a giant Prisoner's Dilemma game with many players.
Chap. 7 : How to Promote Cooperation
The Evolution of Cooperation (1984; 2006)
“Small kindnesses often, unintentionally, produce the biggest payoffs.”
Source: The Gift
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Richard Paul Evans 51
American writer 1962Related quotes
Part I, Chapter 2, Research Perspectives, p. 31.
The Art and Science of Negotiation (1982)
1999 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, as quoted in "Why Won't Buffett Invest in Tech Stocks?" at Motley Fool (6 March 2000) http://www.fool.com/boringport/2000/boringport000306.htm
2009, Speech: The Socio-Economic Peace Program of Senator Francis Escudero
Book II, 1103b
Nicomachean Ethics
“What kind of a person does Enlightenment produce?”
Said the Master:
"To be public-spirited and belong to no party,
to move without being bound to any given course,
to take things as they come,
have no remorse for the past,
no anxiety for the future,
to move when pushed,
to come when dragged,
to be like a mighty gale,
like a feather in the wind,
like weeds floating on a river,
like a mill-stone meekly grinding,
to love all creation equally
as heaven and earth are equal to all
— such is the product of Enlightenment."
On hearing these words one of the younger disciples cried, "This sort of teaching is not for the living but for the dead," and walked away, never to return.
Rejection
One Minute Wisdom (1989)
“What kind of a universe would it be if we could not do small kindnesses for one another?”
Source: The Marianne Trilogy, Marianne, the Madame, and the Momentary Gods (1988), Chapter 17 (p. 123)
“… nature often produces combinations and effects which on paper appear incorrect.”
Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Illumination of clouds and the direction of light, p. 101