Abstract
In a recent article, McClennen (Synthese 187:65–93, 2012) defends an alternative bargaining theory in response to his criticisms of the standard Nash bargaining solution as a principle of distributive justice in the context of the social contract. McClennen rejects the orthodox concept of expected individual utility maximizing behavior that underlies the Nash bargaining model in favor of what he calls full rationality, and McClennen’s full cooperation bargaining theory demands that agents select the most egalitarian strictly Pareto-optimal distributional outcome that is strictly Pareto-superior to the state of nature. I argue that McClennen’s full cooperators are best described as reasonable agents whose rationality is constrained by moral considerations and that McClennen’s bargaining theory is moralized in this regard. If, by contrast, the orthodox concept of rationality is assumed and plausible assumptions are made about human nature and social cooperation, then a modified version of the standard Nash bargaining solution, which I call the stabilized Nash bargaining solution (Moehler in Utilitas 22:447–473, 2010), is justified. From the perspective of rational agents, the stabilized Nash bargaining solution can accommodate McClennen’s criticisms of the standard Nash bargaining solution in the context of the social contract and, for such agents, it can serve as a principle of distributive justice in deeply morally pluralistic societies.
Notes
See Roemer (1986), for example.
Rawls (1971, p. 116).
See Braithwaite (1955).
In Morals by Agreement (1986), Gauthier aims to justify a bargaining solution that is free from moral considerations. However, as subsequent criticisms have shown (see Goodin 1993, for example), Gauthier’s bargaining theory relies ultimately on substantial moral premises. Such criticisms led Gauthier (1993) to reject his own bargaining theory in favor of the standard Nash bargaining solution, and more recently (2013), his whole social contract theory as initially stated in Morals by Agreement in an attempt to reinstate, under a new name, his principle of minimax relative concession as a principle of distributive justice.
See Kalai (1977).
See Hobbes (1651).
See McClennen (2012).
See Moehler (2010).
For related criticisms of the standard Nash bargaining solution, see McClennen (2010, pp. 527–530).
See Hobbes (1651).
For simplicity, I focus in this article on principles of distributive justice as the only social regulative principles.
See McClennen (2012, p. 67 and p. 70).
See McClennen (2012, pp. 70–71).
See McClennen (2012, pp. 69–70).
See McClennen (2012, pp. 68–69).
See McClennen (2012, p. 78).
McClennen (2012, p. 75).
McClennen (2012, p. 73).
See McClennen (2012, pp. 91–92).
In fact, McClennen (2012, p. 88) rejects Rawls’ distinction between the rational and the reasonable and, in this sense, conflates the two concepts.
For a somewhat similar criticism from an evolutionary point of view, see Skyrms (1996, pp. 38–42).
Three qualifications apply to the following discussion. First, I do not assume that agents are (always) rational in real life in the idealized way described in this article. I engage in a normative analysis. Second, I assume a society with a fixed and finite number of rational agents whose mental and physical capacities are sufficiently developed. Finally, I do not address potential specific duties of distributive justice that may arise for minors, the elderly, or the handicapped.
Moehler (2012, p. 100).
See Moehler (2012, pp. 95–97).
In Moehler (2010) and (2013), I present two moral justifications for this principle. The first justification employs Rawls’ initial statement of the original position and the second justification employs a combined version of Rawls’ original position and Harsanyi’s equiprobability model. In Moehler (2012), I offer a nonmoral justification for the principle that, like McClennen’s argument for full cooperation bargaining, does not invoke a veil of ignorance and is most relevant for the discussion in this article.
For a formal discussion of the precise properties of the stabilized Nash bargaining solution, see Moehler (2010, pp. 466–473).
For similar criticism, see Luce and Raiffa (1957, pp. 128–131).
See Hobbes (1651, Part 1, Chapter 14).
Rawls (2001, p. 130 and p. 162), for example, states this condition explicitly for his theory of justice.
For further discussion of this point, see Moehler (2010, pp. 451–452). For a somewhat similar argument for a social minimum, see Kavka (1986, pp. 188–224). In contrast to Kavka, however, I do not assume that (i) agents are ‘disaster avoiders’ in the strict sense defined by Kavka, (ii) agents are ignorant of their social positions for the justification and determination of the social minimum, and (iii) the social minimum concerns only economic welfare.
See also McClennen (2012, p. 86).
For discussion of the basic features of a potential Hobbesian political system, see Kavka (1986, pp. 224–236).
See Rawls (2001, p. 42).
The resulting form of the state that institutionalizes the demands of the stabilized Nash bargaining solution as a principle of distributive justice may best be described as a minimal (or productivist) welfare state. For this point, see Moehler (2010, pp. 465–466).
Hume (1739/40, Book 3, Part 3, Section 7).
McClennen (2012, p. 83). I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers of this journal for their helpful comments on this article. In addition, I am very grateful to Edward McClennen, not only for his help with improving my argument in this article and my understanding of the differences between his social contract theory and mine, but also, and more importantly, for his generous intellectual support over many years until his death in 2013.
References
Barry B (1989) Theories of justice. University of California Press, Berkeley
Binmore K (1998) Game theory and the social contract. Volume 2. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Binmore K (2010) Interpersonal comparison in egalitarian societies. Eur J Polit Econ 26:294–301
Braithwaite R (1955) Theory of games as a tool for the moral philosopher. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Gaus G (1995) The rational, the reasonable and justification. J Polit Philos 3:234–258
Gauthier D (1986) Morals by agreement. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Gauthier D (1993) Uniting separate persons. In: Gauthier D, Sugden R (eds) Rationality, justice and the social contract. Michigan University Press, Ann Arbor
Gauthier D (2013) Twenty-five on. Ethics 123:601–624
Goodin R (1993) Equal rationality and initial endowments. In: Gauthier D, Sugden R (eds) Rationality, justice and the social contract. Michigan University Press, Ann Arbor
Hausman D (1995) The impossibility of interpersonal utility comparisons. Mind 104:473–490
Hobbes T (1651) In: Tuck R (ed) Leviathan. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Hume D (1739/40) A treatise of human nature. In: Norton D, Norton M (eds). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Kalai E (1977) Proportional solutions to bargaining situations: interpersonal utility comparisons. Econometrica 45:1623–1630
Kavka G (1986) Hobbesian moral and political theory. Princeton University Press, Princeton
List C (2003) Are interpersonal comparisons of utility indeterminate? Erkenntnis 58:229–260
Luce R, Raiffa H (1957) Games and decisions: introduction and critical survey. Wiley, New York
McClennen E (2008) An alternative model of rational cooperation. In: Fleurbaey M, Salles M, Weymark J (eds) Justice, political liberalism, and utilitarianism: themes from Harsanyi and Rawls. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
McClennen E (2010) Rational choice and moral theory. Ethical Theory Moral Pract 13:521–540
McClennen E (2012) Rational cooperation. Synthese 187:65–93
McMahon C (2014) Rawls, reciprocity, and the barely reasonable. Utilitas 26:1–22
Moehler M (2010) The (stabilized) Nash bargaining solution as a principle of distributive justice. Utilitas 22:447–473
Moehler M (2012) A Hobbesian derivation of the principle of universalization. Philos Stud 158:83–107
Moehler M (2013) Contractarian ethics and Harsanyi’s two justifications of utilitarianism. Polit Philos Econ 12:24–47
Rawls J (1971) A theory of justice. Revised edition 1999. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Rawls J (1993) Political liberalism. Columbia University Press, New York
Rawls J (2001) In: Kelly E (ed) Justice as fairness: a restatement. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Roemer J (1986) The mismarriage of bargaining theory and distributive justice. Ethics 97:88–110
Rossi M (2011) Transcendental arguments and interpersonal utility comparisons. Econ Philos 27:273–295
Sen A (1970) Collective choice and social welfare. Holden-Day, San Francisco
Sibley W (1953) The rational versus the reasonable. Philos Rev 62:554–560
Skyrms B (1996) Evolution of the social contract. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Moehler, M. Rational Cooperation and the Nash Bargaining Solution. Ethic Theory Moral Prac 18, 577–594 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-014-9541-9
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-014-9541-9