Candide (Chapter 1 and 2)

Candide is a bastard who was brought up in the house of a Baron. He was lectured by the "best" philosopher of Westphalia along with the children of the Baron. One day Lady Cunegonde saw their teacher having sex with a maid. She didn't know what this "experiment" was so she wanted to try it out. The next day she tried it with Candide after dinner and her father saw them. He obviously kicked Candide out of the house. He found two men who made him become one of the Bulgar King's men. He went, and thanks to his naivety and lack of knowledge he got into trouble.

The beginning of Candide doesn't only introduce us to the main character, but to satire which is the writing style Voltaire uses. Satire is used to make fun of something. The author uses it in such a great manner that I am enjoying the novel.

Hamlet Vocabulary

Capon: A castrated male chicken
Hither: Come here
Epitaph: A writing to commemorate a deceased person
Sheen: Shiny
Confound: to amaze or perplex
Accurst: To put a curse on
Fain: Gladly, content
Beguile: To influence, mislead
Jest: Joke

Chapter 12: Nice Guys Finish First

Chapter 12 is the most interesting chapter because it introduces the game, Prisoner's Dilemma and explains how it applies to Darwinism and the survival of the genes. The title of the chapter states something no one believes because nice guys (genes) tend to get stepped on and left behind. But Axelrod proves this is not correct by recollecting strategies for prisoner's dilemma and then making them compete against each other and amongst themselves. The first time he did it nice strategies won. Therefore he concluded that to win the strategy needs 'niceness and forgiveness'. The second time the strategies were divided in two groups: the very nice and forgiving and the very nasty. Niceness won again. although extreme niceness didn't. He then made it a survival game. After many generations nice strategies were the only survivors and all the nasty ones became extinct.

Reciprocal Altruism: Helping, but receiving help in return.

Prisoner's Dilemma: A game in which two players have two cards, they can either defect or cooperate. If they both defect they do fairly bad if the both cooperate they do fairly good and if one defects and the other one cooperates the sucker (the one who cooperates) does terribly and the other one does very well. Therefore the best move is always to defect but it will never benefit as much as mutual cooperation. The game is a dilemma.

The evolutionary stable strategies states that those strategies that reach an equilibrium will remain constant throughout evolution.