Actions and Rules

Abstract

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"Each of us was supposed to reflect on how we would approach the study of actions and rules. I wish to approach this question by setting up a general framework that could be used to study actions and rules in complex systems at various levels of human action (international, national, face-to-face, etc.). In order to define human action, we must establish what is going to be acted upon. Let us first envision the naturally occurring world which can be represented by a series of state variables. Without human intervention physical transformations among these variables occur. These transformations are represented by the physical laws of Newton and Einstein, by chemical laws, and by biological laws. We presume that water moves to the lowest point, chemical transformations occur, etc., whether or not human actors do anything."