[Presented at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.]
Short overview
“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
Philippians 2:4
Our world is made possible by cooperation. The trouble is: cooperation is not something that we can always take for granted. We may be more confident that others will cooperate when it is plainly in their interest to do so, as in the case of driving on the right side of the road, for example. But where there is risk involved, or where there is deficient social trust, we may suspect that others might defect from our common enterprises. This is precisely the trouble that arises in what game theorists call a collective action problem: a situation in which valuable cooperation is precarious because of circumstances that inhibit collective action.
Thinking about collective action problems can enhance our understanding of human agency and sin. It’s not as if no one is ever willing to cooperate. Rather, it is simply that we are often tempted to defect. Furthermore, we all are aware that our potential collaborators share that temptation, which makes us reasonably worried that we might be left high and dry. This makes us, in turn, even more prone to defect; the temptation doubles. The foremost way to address collective action problems is by instituting structural arrangements to promote cooperation.
While game theoretical models may illuminate human behavior, Christian ethicists have prescriptive claims to bring to the theory. We are, after all, called by Paul to look not only to our own interests, but the interests of others. Christians have important reasons to concede the fact of the human temptation to defect—and to exhort one another to withstand that temptation.
I conclude the paper with a reflection of the cooperation—and failures of cooperation—that have emerged and will continue to develop in the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, including commodity hoarding and various levels of commitment to quarantining.