ABSTRACT
Hobbes describes the process by which a 'commonwealth' is set up. He says that the sovereign is one person, of whose acts a great multitude by mutual covenants with one another, have made themselves every one the author'. Game theory, a branch of economics developed in the twentieth century, studies the behaviour of individuals acting together in circumstances of partial uncertainty, where they are faced with a number of possible outcomes. A number of commentators have applied game theory to Hobbes political theory. It has often been supposed that it is possible to see the individuals in Hobbes state of nature as being caught in a practical decision problem, much discussed by game theorists, and known as the prisoner's dilemma. Nonetheless, Hobbes gives no sign of thinking that it makes any difference to the justification of the commonwealth, whether political authority is instituted or acquired.
