Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge
本书从经济学和博弈论视角，论证共同知识（而非仅相互知识）对协调行动的关键作用，并通过公共仪式、建筑布局、广告等实例，展示文化如何创造共同知识以促进集体合作。
This book highlights one particular aspect of culture – that of enabling common knowledge among individuals. A fact is common knowledge if everybody knows it; everybody knows that everybody knows it; and so on ad infinitum. For Economists and Game Theorists, it is well known that common knowledge (and not just mutual knowledge) is essential for achieving coordination (Rubinstein, 1989). In a nutshell, if participating in a public enterprise – from stag‐hunt to underground activities – would turn very sour for each participant unless everybody (or at least enough other people) participates, each individual might avoid the enterprise altogether in the lack of common knowledge that everybody indeed opts in. Embarking from this theoretical insight, Chwe discusses a remarkable array of examples of social institutions and arrangements that bring about common knowledge. These include public ceremonies, rituals, parades and dances to announce and recognise authority and norms; inward facing architecture; focal‐place‐and‐time advertisement of items whose value to individuals hinges on collective consumption or awareness; cohesive social networks; and many more. The appendix delivers an accessible presentation of the abstract formulation of knowledge and common knowledge.