An agent in a game of strategy often has a preference ranking of options without a stable top. Strategic reasoning leads the players to a profile of strategies that are jointly self-supporting. Such a strategic equilibrium is not always a Nash equilibrium, but every Nash equilibrium is a strategic equilibrium. In a game with multiple strategic equilibria, principles of comprehensive rationality select an equilibrium that is Pareto optimal among strategic equilibria. The strategies forming the equilibrium are jointly rational and so constitute a solution of the game. The chapter’s appendix reviews Skryms’s account of joint deliberational equilibrium.
Keywords: deliberational equilibrium, joint rationality, Nash equilibrium, Pareto optimal equilibrium, selection of an equilibrium, Skyrms, solution of a game, strategic equilibrium, strategic reasoning,