Theory of games and economic behavior: a ideia de ciência de John von Neumann e Oskar Morgenstern

Abstract

This work is an investigation into John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern's idea of science implicit in Theary af Games and Economic Behavior. But it does not have the intention to argue purely the mathematical aspects presented in that book, but only the author's epistemological motivations, since they claim to present a theory that became economics a more "scientific" discipline. The research starts with the early development of the theory of probability and the concept of utility, in the first chapter. In the chapter 2, we present a profile of both of authors with an emphasis on the presence of von Neumann in David Hilbert's research program and his interest in quantum mechanics. After that, we present the context of interwar period when the first concepts of game theory were developed and, in chapter 4, the main ideas contained in Theary af Games and Economic Behavior. Finally, we conclude that there is a strong bond between that book and Hilbert's Program of setting axioms to ali fields of mathematics, having the quantum physics as a scientific paradigm