Edna Ullmann-Margalit

Edna Ulman-Margalit was a noted philosophy academic and social scientist who worked for many years at the Hebrew [University of Jerusalem]. In her 1977 book The emergence of norms published by OUP she argues that some of the problems caused by some social interactions can be solved by norms. These problems can be thought of as inhering in the game-theoretical structure of some particular social situations. She delimits various types of situations as paradigms to be dealt with.
1) Prisoners' Dilemma-type situations
2) Co-ordination type situations; and
3) Inequality type situations.
In each of these some basic difficulties confront the individuals involved. Different types of norms of social behaviour are then proposed as solutions to each of these situations.

Selected publications

Ullmann-Margalit, E., 1978. Invisible-hand explanations. Synthese, 39, pp.263-291.
Sunstein, C. R., & Ullmann-Margalit, E.. Second-order decisions. Ethics, 110, 5-31.
Ullmann-Margalit, E.. The emergence of norms. OUP Oxford.
Ullmann-Margalit, Edna. Out of the Cave: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Dead Sea Scrolls Research. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02223-2.