My parents owned a pharmacy in Budapest, which gave us a comfortable living. As I was their only child, they wanted me to become a pharmacist. But my own preference would have been to study philosophy and mathematics. – John Harsanyi
It is our common experience as human beings that the results of social forces seem to admit only of ‘probabilistic’ predictions. – John Harsanyi
One might argue that proper understanding of any social situation would require game-theoretic analysis. – John Harsanyi
In 1958, Anne and I returned to Australia, where I got a very attractive research position at the Australian National University in Canberra. But soon I felt very isolated because at that time game theory was virtually unknown in Australia. – John Harsanyi
I knew that as a pharmacy student I would obtain military deferment. As I was of Jewish origin, this meant that I would not have to serve in a forced labor unit of the Hungarian army. – John Harsanyi
In 1946, I re-enrolled at the University of Budapest in order to obtain a Ph.D. in philosophy with minors in sociology and in psychology. – John Harsanyi
After preliminary work by a number of other distinguished mathematicians and economists, game theory as a systematic theory started with von Neumann and Morgenstern’s book, ‘Theory of Games and Economic Behavior,’ published in 1944. – John Harsanyi
In principle, every social situation involves strategic interaction among the participants. – John Harsanyi
In its first 30 years of existence, up to the mid 1970s, the practical applications of game theory were very limited, probably as a result of excessive preoccupation by game theorists with cooperative solution concepts. – John Harsanyi
