Markets, politics and freedom in the work of Hannah Arendt

Like the alchemist's philosopher's stone of old, though, the heavy artillery of game theory is being wheeled out in more and more sophisticated models, in the hope of converting the lead of individual self-seeking into the gold of cooperation or collective action. With their "iterated prisoner's dilemmas" and the like, it never seems to occur to these theorists that they may themselves be imprisoned–unable to break out of a discourse that prevents even the best of them from making contact with reality. Taking as a starting point Jon Elster’s well-known essay “The Market and the Forum”, the author examines Hannah Arendt’s distinctive views about politics.