Discourses on Social Software

Jan Eijck, Rineke Verbrugge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040796955
• Topic: Computer Science
• Index: Computer Science

Can computer scientists contribute to the solution of societal problems? Can logic help to model social interactions? Are there recipes for making groups with diverging preferences arrive at reasonable decisions? Why is common knowledge important for social interaction? Does the rational pursuit of individual interests put the public interest in danger, and if so, why? Discourses on Social Software sheds light on these and similar questions. This book offers the reader an ideal introduction to the exciting new field of social software. It shows in detail the many ways in which the seemingly abstract sciences of logic and computer science can be put to use to analyse and solve contemporary social problems.The unusual format of a series of discussions among a logician, a computer scientist, a philosopher and some researchers from other disciplines encourages the reader to develop his own point of view. The only requirements for reading this book are a nodding familiarity with logic, a curious mind, and a taste for spicy debate.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• List of Authors
• 1 Introductory Conversation
• 2 Replies to Angry, Prag and Star
• Setting
• 3 What is Social Software?
• 4 A Guest Lecture on Social Software
• 5 Social Software and the Social Sciences
• 6 On Social Choice Theory
• 7 Ends and Means, Values and Virtues
• 8 Common Knowledge and Common Belief
• 9 Game Theory, Logic and Rational Choice
• 10 What is Protocol Analysis?
• 11 Dynamic Epistemic Logic for Protocol Analysis
• 12 Battle of the Logics
• 13 Eating from the Tree of Ignorance
• 14 On Collective Rational Action
• 15 Social Software and the Ills of Society
• Bibliography
• Index