Researcher ORCID Identifier
0009-0008-0321-9725
Graduation Year
2025
Date of Submission
12-2024
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Philosophy
Reader 1
Dustin Locke
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
2024 Carlos A Hernandez
Abstract
For moral skeptics and self-interested individuals, it is difficult for them to recognize the need and benefit for cooperation. That is, there is an intrinsic conflict in claiming that constraining one’s self-interest when cooperating with others serves to promote an individual’s self-interest. Even so, David Gauthier provides constrained maximization as a rational choice theory that addresses this conflict and balances the concepts of rationality and morality. Constrained maximization demonstrates to the moral skeptics and self-interested individuals that cooperation is in their self-interest when using the situation of the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Yet, as Holly Smith highlights, constrained maximization does not provide a strong enough reason to explain why a rational agent must comply with their intention to cooperate. Thus, this thesis aims to defend David Gauthier’s constrained maximization by providing an improved Rationality of Perseverance Principle (RPP*) that can address the compliancy problem that Holly Smith emphasizes. All in all, this thesis provides an argument against moral skeptics and self-interested individuals for the rationality of cooperation in one-shot Prisoner’s Dilemmas.
Recommended Citation
Hernandez, Carlos, "The Rationality of Cooperation in One-Shot Prisoner's Dilemmas: A Defense of David Gauthier's Constrained Maximization" (2025). CMC Senior Theses. 3822.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/3822