Christian Schmidt is professor emeritus at Paris-Dauphine University and president of the European Association of Neuroeconomics, which he created in 2011. He is notably the author of Penser la guerre, penser l’économie (1997), La Théorie des jeux: Essai d’interprétation (2003), Neuroéconomie: Comment les neurosciences transforment l’analyse économique (2010), which was awarded the 2010 Risques Prize.

Pierre Livet is professor emeritus of philosophy at Aix-Marseille University. His work focuses on practical philosophy and the epistemology of the cognitive sciences and the social sciences (particularly economics and sociology). He is the co-editor, with Alain Leroux, of Les Leçons de philosophie économique and the author of La Communauté virtuelle (1994), Emotions et rationalité morale (2002), Qu’est-ce qu’une action? (2005) and Les Êtres sociaux (with Frédéric Nef, 2009).

This book is the result of the dialogue between an economist and a philosopher, who together show the extent and limits of recent findings in the neurosciences in furthering our understanding of interaction. The authors revisit such classic issues in economics as the coordination of actions and cooperation among agents, after integrating the various emotional and cognitive processes that come into play. In addition, they explore the conditions underlying the emergence of social conventions and the workings of the norms that govern individual behaviour. Several new ideas result from their analysis: subjects’ inter-intentionality, the inter-temporal dynamic guiding their relations, the different aspects that trust can take and the various forms of control that explicit rules can bring to bear on social behaviour.

• A book at the crossroads of economics and philosophy that attempts to understand interaction between individuals, and the consequences this may have on economics and finance.
• Christian Schmidt is a renowned expert in neuroeconomics.