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The Prisoner's Dilemma and the Prisoners of the Prisoner's Dilemma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Daniel R. Gilbert Jr.
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Abstract

The Prisoner's Dilemma is a popular device used by researchers to analyze such institutions as business and the modern corporation. This popularity is not deserved under a certain condition that is widespread in college education. If we, as management educators, take seriously our parts in preparing our students to participate in the institutions of a democratic society, then the Prisoner's Dilemma—as clever a rhetorical device as it is—is an unacceptable means to that end. By posing certain questions about the prisoners in the Prisoner's Dilemma, I show that management educators have created a Prisoners Dilemma, whereby they intellectually imprison themselves and their students by continuing to appeal to the Prisoner's Dilemma. These questions are not encouraged by the advocates of the Prisoner's Dilemma.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , April 1996 , pp. 165 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 1996

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