The Irrationality of Stand Your Ground: Game Theory on Self-Defense

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Moral Philosophy and Politics 10 (2):387-404 (2023)
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Abstract

US law continues its historical trend of growing more permissive towards actors who engage in violent action in purported self-defense. We draw on some informal game theory to show why this is strategically irrational and suggest rolling back self-defense doctrines like stand your ground to earlier historical precedents like duty to retreat.

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10.1515/mopp-2022-0007

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Author Profiles

Kathryn Petrozzo
University of Utah
Carlos Santana
University of Pennsylvania
Derek Halm
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References found in this work

Self-defense.Judith Jarvis Thomson - 1991 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 20 (4):283-310.
War and Self Defense.David Rodin - 2002 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
Defense.Kai Draper - 2009 - Philosophical Studies 145 (1):69 - 88.
Culpable Bystanders, Innocent Threats and the Ethics of Self-Defense.Yitzhak Benbaji - 2005 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 35 (4):585 - 622.

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