History of Game Theory - Game Theory.net

The ideas underlying game theory have appeared throughout history, apparent in the bible, the Talmud, the works of Descartes and Sun Tzu, and the writings of Chales Darwin. The basis of modern game theory, however, can be considered an outgrowth of a three seminal works:

Augustin Cournot's Researches into the Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth in 1838, gives an intuitive explanation of what would eventually be formalized as the Nash equilibrium, as well as provides an evolutionary, or dynamic notion of best-responding to the actions of others.
Francis Ysidro Edgeworth's Mathematical Psychics demonstrated the notion of competitive equilibria in a two-person (as well as two-type) economy
Emile Borel, in Algebre et calcul des probabilites, Comptes Rendus Academie des Sciences, Vol. 184, 1927, provided the first insight into mixed strategies - randomization may support a stable outcome.

While many other contributors hold a place in the history of game theory, it is widely accepted that modern analysis began with John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern's book, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior and was given its modern methodological framework by John Nash building on von Neumann and Morgenstern's results..

updated: 1 September 2006
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