13 Quotes by Anatol Rapoport

To gain knowledge, we must learn to ask the right questions; and to get answers, we must act, not wait for answers to occur to us.

The moral development of a civilization is measured by the breadth of its sense of community.

A thorough understanding of game theory, should dim these greedy hopes. Knowledge of game theory does not make one a better card player, businessman or military strategist.

One cannot play chess if one becomes aware of the pieces as living souls and of the fact that the Whites and the Blacks have more in common with each other than with the players. Suddenly one loses all interest in who will be champion.

Cooperate on move one; thereafter, do whatever the other player did the previous move.

Although the drama of games of strategy is strongly linked with the psychological aspects of the conflict, game theory is not concerned with these aspects. Game theory, so to speak, plays the board. It is concerned only with the logical aspects of strategy.

On the question of whether a behavioral science can in principle be constructed, we shall take no sides. That some kinds of human behavior can be described and even predicted in terms of objectively verifiable and quantifiable data seems to us to have been established.

It is misleading in a crucial way to view information as something that can be poured into an empty vessel, like a fluid or even energy.

The outcome of a non-constant-sum game may be dictated by the individual rationality of the respective players without satisfying a criterion of collective rationality.