The standard definition of “rationality” in economics is “having complete and transitive preferences”, and sometimes “having complete and transitive preferences and adhering to the von Neumann-Morgenstern axioms”. Not the way it’s used on Less Wrong.
I think the really cool thing about game theory is how far you can go by stating the form of a game and deriving what someone will do, or the possible paths they may take, assuming only that they have rational preferences.
Making sure that students know what definition is being used is very important. Although to be pedantic, there are assumptions beyond just assuming rational inference, such as recursive metaknowledge (all players know all public knowledge, everyone knows that everyone knows, everyone knows that everyone knows that everyone knows, etc.), that are used in game theory.
The standard definition of “rationality” in economics is “having complete and transitive preferences”, and sometimes “having complete and transitive preferences and adhering to the von Neumann-Morgenstern axioms”. Not the way it’s used on Less Wrong.
I think the really cool thing about game theory is how far you can go by stating the form of a game and deriving what someone will do, or the possible paths they may take, assuming only that they have rational preferences.
Making sure that students know what definition is being used is very important. Although to be pedantic, there are assumptions beyond just assuming rational inference, such as recursive metaknowledge (all players know all public knowledge, everyone knows that everyone knows, everyone knows that everyone knows that everyone knows, etc.), that are used in game theory.