{"title":"Theory And Decision Library A","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"evolution-and-progress-in-democracies-book-johann-gtschl-9781402000638","title":"Evolution and Progress in Democracies","description":"In a ground-breaking series of articles, one of them written by  a Nobel Laureate, this volume demonstrates the evolutionary dynamic  and the transformation of today's democratic societies into  scientific-democratic societies. It highlights the progress of  modeling individual and societal evaluation by neo-Bayesian utility  theory. It shows how social learning and collective opinion formation  work, and how democracies cope with randomness caused by randomizers.  Nonlinear `evolution equations' and serial stochastic matrices of  evolutionary game theory allow us to optimally compute possible serial  evolutionary solutions of societal conflicts. But in democracies  progress can be defined as any positive, gradual, innovative and  creative change of culturally used, transmitted and stored mentifacts  (models, theories), sociofacts (customs, opinions), artifacts and  technifacts, within and across generations. The most important changes  are caused, besides randomness, by conflict solutions and their  realizations by citizens who follow democratic laws. These laws  correspond to the extended Pareto principle, a supreme, socioethical  democratic rule. According to this principle, progress is any increase  in the individual and collective welfare which is achieved during any  evolutionary progress.    Central to evolutionary modeling is the criterion of the empirical  realization of computed solutions. Applied to serial conflict  solutions (decisions), evolutionary trajectories are formed; they  become the most influential causal attractors of the channeling of  societal evolution. Democratic constitutions, legal systems etc.,  store all advantageous, present and past, adaptive, competitive,  cooperative and collective solutions and their rules; they have been  accepted by majority votes. Societal laws are codes of statutes  (default or statistical rules), and they serve to optimally solve  societal conflicts, in analogy to game theoretical models or to  statistical decision theory. Such solutions become necessary when we  face harmful or advantageous random events always lurking at the edge  of societal and external chaos.    The evolutionary theory of societal evolution in democracies presents  a new type of stochastic theory; it is based on default rules and  stresses realization. The rules represent the change of our  democracies into information, science and technology-based societies;  they will revolutionize social sciences, especially economics. Their  methods have already found their way into neural brain physiology and  research into intelligence. In this book, neural activity and the  creativity of human thinking are no longer regarded as  linear-deductive. Only evolutive nonlinear thinking can include  multiple causal choices by many individuals and the risks of internal  and external randomness; this serves the increasing welfare of all  individuals and society as a whole.    Evolution and Progress in Democracies is relevant for social  scientists, economists, evolution theorists, statisticians,  philosophers, philosophers of science, and interdisciplinary  researchers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51142428328209,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51142430720273,"sku":"NIN9781402000638","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1402000634.jpg?v=1751176858"},{"product_id":"evolution-and-progress-in-democracies-book-johann-gtschl-9789048158423","title":"Evolution and Progress in Democracies","description":"In a ground-breaking series of articles, one of them written by  a Nobel Laureate, this volume demonstrates the evolutionary dynamic  and the transformation of today's democratic societies into  scientific-democratic societies. It highlights the progress of  modeling individual and societal evaluation by neo-Bayesian utility  theory. It shows how social learning and collective opinion formation  work, and how democracies cope with randomness caused by randomizers.  Nonlinear `evolution equations' and serial stochastic matrices of  evolutionary game theory allow us to optimally compute possible serial  evolutionary solutions of societal conflicts. But in democracies  progress can be defined as any positive, gradual, innovative and  creative change of culturally used, transmitted and stored mentifacts  (models, theories), sociofacts (customs, opinions), artifacts and  technifacts, within and across generations. The most important changes  are caused, besides randomness, by conflict solutions and their  realizations by citizens who follow democratic laws. These laws  correspond to the extended Pareto principle, a supreme, socioethical  democratic rule. According to this principle, progress is any increase  in the individual and collective welfare which is achieved during any  evolutionary progress.    Central to evolutionary modeling is the criterion of the empirical  realization of computed solutions. Applied to serial conflict  solutions (decisions), evolutionary trajectories are formed; they  become the most influential causal attractors of the channeling of  societal evolution. Democratic constitutions, legal systems etc.,  store all advantageous, present and past, adaptive, competitive,  cooperative and collective solutions and their rules; they have been  accepted by majority votes. Societal laws are codes of statutes  (default or statistical rules), and they serve to optimally solve  societal conflicts, in analogy to game theoretical models or to  statistical decision theory. Such solutions become necessary when we  face harmful or advantageous random events always lurking at the edge  of societal and external chaos.    The evolutionary theory of societal evolution in democracies presents  a new type of stochastic theory; it is based on default rules and  stresses realization. The rules represent the change of our  democracies into information, science and technology-based societies;  they will revolutionize social sciences, especially economics. Their  methods have already found their way into neural brain physiology and  research into intelligence. In this book, neural activity and the  creativity of human thinking are no longer regarded as  linear-deductive. Only evolutive nonlinear thinking can include  multiple causal choices by many individuals and the risks of internal  and external randomness; this serves the increasing welfare of all  individuals and society as a whole.    Evolution and Progress in Democracies is relevant for social  scientists, economists, evolution theorists, statisticians,  philosophers, philosophers of science, and interdisciplinary  researchers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51223015227665,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51223015260433,"sku":"NIN9789048158423","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9048158427.jpg?v=1751254355"},{"product_id":"acting-under-uncertainty-book-george-m-von-furstenberg-9780792390633","title":"Acting under Uncertainty","description":"Uncertainty could be associated with wisdom, enterprise, and discovery. In ordinary speech, however, it has mostly negative connotations. There is fear of the unknown and ignorance is bliss; there are maxims to the effect that what you don't know doesn't hurt you (or: bother you) in several languages. This volume suggests that we need be bothered by the excessive confidence with which scientists, particularly social scientists, present some of their conclusions and overstate their range of application. Otherwise many of the questions that should be raised about all the major uncertainties attending a particular issue routinely may continue to be thwarted or suppressed. Down playing uncertainty does not lead to more responsible or surer action, it sidetracks research agendas, and leaves the decision makers exposed to nasty surprise. This volume demonstrates that recognizing the many forms of uncertainty that enter into the development of any particular subject matter is a precondition for more responsible choice and deeper knowledge. Our purpose is to contribute to a broader appreciation of uncertainty than regularly accorded in any of the numerous disciplines represented here. The seventeenth-century French philosopher Descartes, quoted in this volume, wrote that whoever is searching after truth must, once in his life, doubt all things; insofar as this is possible.  White areas left on maps of the world in past centuries were a much more productive challenge than marking the end of the known world with the pillars of Hercules.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52125659988241,"sku":"NLS9780792390633","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780792390633.jpg?v=1757467439"},{"product_id":"reductionism-and-systems-theory-in-the-life-sciences-book-paul-hoyningen-huene-9789401069410","title":"Reductionism and Systems Theory in the Life Sciences","description":"The present volume aims at giving a discussion ot the problems ot reductionism in contemporary life sciences. Any organism can be described as a system ot different levels ot organization different levels ot order and complexity - and it is important, theretore, to study all ot the organizational levels and to see their peculiarities.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52126599217425,"sku":"NLS9789401069410","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789401069410.jpg?v=1757477352"},{"product_id":"comparing-voting-systems-book-hannu-nurmi-9789027726001","title":"Comparing Voting Systems","description":"In many contexts of everyday life we find ourselves faced with the problem of reconciling the views of several persons. These problems are usually solved by resorting to some opinion aggre- gating procedure, like voting. Very often the problem is thought of as being solved after the decision to take a vote has been made and the ballots have been counted. Most official decision making bodies have formally instituted procedures of voting but in informal groups such procedures are typically chosen in casu. Curiously enough people do not seem to pay much attention to which particular procedure is being resorted to as long as some kind of voting takes place. As we shall see shortly the procedure being used often makes a great difference to the voting outcomes. Thus, the Question arises as to which voting procedure is best. This book is devoted to a discussion of this problem in the light of various criteria of optimality. We shall deal with a number of procedures that have been proposed for use or are actually in use in voting contexts. The aim of this book is to give an evaluation of the virtues and shortcomings of these procedures. On the basis of this evaluation the reader will hopefully be able to determine which procedure is optimal for the decision setting that he or she has in mind.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52126681596177,"sku":"NLS9789027726001","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027726001.jpg?v=1757477792"},{"product_id":"metaphysics-of-liberty-book-frank-forman-9789401068949","title":"The Metaphysics of Liberty","description":"Philosophy suffers from an excess of convoluted introspection. One result is that concepts multiply unchecked. That some events have observable causes gets reified into a First Cause or, in a more secular age, to the thesis that every event is fatalistically determined. Another drawback of convoluted introspection is that tiny but crucial assumptions slip in, often unawares, with the result that densely argued counter-tomes are written in reply and no progress is made toward any kind of consensus. At bottom, subjectivity reigns. I exaggerate. Toward the other pole of the subjectivity-objectivity continuum, consensus among scientists is in fact always at a good healthy distance from compulsive unanimity. New theories replace old, and at any one time the evidence can usually be interpreted two ways. Indeed, it is possible to pile epicycle upon epicycle in the Ptolemaic system of the heavens and approximate the ellipses planets travel in the Copernican system. What cinched the case for Copernicus was not simplicity--after all alchemy is simpler than chemisty. Nor was it experiment--there were no moon shots back then. Rather it was Newton's foundations. He established a physics for the earth and the heavens alike. Earthly physics we can verify, and it does not jell with the Ptolemaic system.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52127150211345,"sku":"NLS9789401068949","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789401068949.jpg?v=1757483577"},{"product_id":"algebra-of-conscience-book-va-lefebvre-9780792371212","title":"Algebra of Conscience","description":"Revised Edition with a Second Part with a new Foreword by  Anatol Rapoport","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52134743376145,"sku":"NLS9780792371212","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780792371212.jpg?v=1757544852"},{"product_id":"cognitive-strategies-in-stochastic-thinking-book-roland-w-scholz-9789027724540","title":"Cognitive Strategies in Stochastic Thinking","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52138435281169,"sku":"NLS9789027724540","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027724540.jpg?v=1757562837"},{"product_id":"morality-and-rational-choice-book-j-baron-9780792322764","title":"Morality and Rational Choice","description":"Public controversies - such as those about the distribution of goods between rich and poor, trade and population policies, allocation of medical resources, and the tradeoff between environment al protection and economic efficiency - often hinge on fundamental views about how we ought to make decisions tImt affect each other, that is, what principles we ought to follow. Efforts to find an acceptable public philosophy, a set of such principles on which people might agree, have foundered because of dis agreement among philosophers and others who are concerned with such issues. One view, which I shall develop and defend here, holds that decisions that affect others should be made according to an overall evaluation of the consequences of each option. This consequentialist view is opposed by a variety of alternatives, but many of the alternatives have in COlllmon a basis in moral intuition. To take a simple example, consequentialism holds that, other things equal, if we have decided that it is better to let a terminally ill patient die than to prolong her agony by keeping her alive, then we ought to kill her.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52138802348305,"sku":"NLS9780792322764","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780792322764.jpg?v=1757565085"},{"product_id":"instrumental-rationality-and-moral-philosophy-book-b-verbeek-9781402006395","title":"Instrumental Rationality and Moral Philosophy","description":"Many academic authors incur debts in the production of their work, many of which are intellectual. I am no exception. One of my intellectual debts is to three remarkable books, which formed the starting point for my thinking about norms. The first of these books is well known among philosophers: David Lewis' Convention. In vintage Lewisian prose, the book gives a lucid and convincing conventionalist analysis of semantic norms. The second 1985 dissertation Wederkerige book is Govert den Hartogh's Verwachtingen (Mutual Expectations). Partly because it was written in Dutch - my native tongue -partly because of the occasionally impenetrable style, it never got the attention it deserves. In that book, Den Hartogh extends Lewis' analysis of semantic norms to moral norms. Den Hartogh introduced the notion of cooperative virtues that is the focus of much of this book. The third book is a book on economics, largely ignored by economists, which only lately has started to receive some recognition among philosophers: Robert Sugden's The Economics of Rights, Co- operation and Welfare. Sugden's book explains the emergence and stability of norms in terms of social evolution. Though all three books develop a of norms, their arguments and constructions are conventionalist account very different. Lewis and Den Hartogh take the picture of rational man deliberating about his course of action very serious; Sugden rejects this picture as unrealistic and unnecessary.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52139165745425,"sku":"NLS9781402006395","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781402006395.jpg?v=1757567451"},{"product_id":"functional-models-of-cognition-book-a-carsetti-9780792360728","title":"Functional Models of Cognition","description":"Our ontology as well as our grammar are, as Quine affirms, ineliminable parts of our conceptual contribution to our theory of the world. It seems impossible to think of enti- ties, individuals and events without specifying and constructing, in advance, a specific language that must be used in order to speak about these same entities. We really know only insofar as we regiment our system of the world in a consistent and adequate way. At the level of proper nouns and existence functions we have, for instance, a standard form of a regimented language whose complementary apparatus consists of predicates, variables, quantifiers and truth functions. If, for instance, the discoveries in the field of Quantum Mechanics should oblige us, in the future, to abandon the traditional logic of truth functions, the very notion of existence, as established until now, will be chal- lenged. These considerations, as developed by Quine, introduce us to a conceptual perspective like the internal realist perspective advocated by Putnam whose principal aim is, for cer- tain aspects, to link the philosophical approaches developed respectively by Quine and Wittgenstein. Actually, Putnam conservatively extends the approach to the problem of ref- erence outlined by Quine: in his opinion, to talk of facts without specifying the language to be used is to talk of nothing.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52140247122193,"sku":"NLS9780792360728","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780792360728.jpg?v=1757573452"},{"product_id":"conscience-an-interdisciplinary-view-book-g-zecha-9789401082006","title":"Conscience: An Interdisciplinary View","description":"Value change and uncertainty about the validity of traditional moral convictions are frequently observed when scientific re- search confronts us with new moral problems or challenges the moral responsibility of the scientist. Which ethics is to be relied on? Which principles are the most reasonable, the most humane ones? For want of an appropriate answer, moral authorities of- ten point to conscience, the individual conscience, which seems to be man's unique, directly accessible and final source of moral contention. But what is meant by 'conscience'? There is hardly a notion as widely used and at the same time as controversial as that of conscience. In the history of ethics we can distinguish several trends in the interpretation of the concept and function of conscience. The Greeks used the word OuvEt81lm to denote a kind of 'accompa- nying knowledge' that mostly referred to negatively experienced behavior. In Latin, the expression conscientia meant a knowing- together pointing beyond the individual consciousness to the common knowledge of other people. In the Bible, especially in the New Testament, OuvEt81l0t is used for the guiding con- sciousness of the morality of one's own action.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52140961038609,"sku":"NLS9789401082006","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789401082006.jpg?v=1757576181"},{"product_id":"lifetime-of-a-durable-good-book-g-antonides-9789401073653","title":"The Lifetime of a Durable Good","description":"As a psychologist by education, my interest is in how people solve problems. At the Economic Institute of Leyden Universi ty, I learned that economists study human behavior too, although their studies are limited to economic affairs. At the Institute of Scientific Research on Consumer Affairs became (SWOKA), I aware of the needs of consumer organizations and the government for consumer research to base their policy on. At Erasmus University Rotterdam, I got the opportunity to integrate my interests and knowledge into this book. The first part of the book attempts to integrate psychological theories of attitude, perception, motivation and decision into economics. Both disciplines are concerned with human behavior, and the economic paradigm of demand, subj ect to restrictions, is combined with the psychological tradition of direct measurements of perceptions and motivations. This results in a micro-model of economic choice that can be tested by means of information obtained directly from consumers. The empirical study deals with the problem of scrapping a durable consumption good. By means of a consumer survey, the micro-model of choice is applied to the decision to scrap a durable good, or to repair the good in case of a defect. This individual decision obviously is connected with the large scale problem of waste, and with the manufacturer's problem of producing durable goods with a certain quality and durabili ty.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52141557514513,"sku":"NLS9789401073653","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789401073653.jpg?v=1757577509"},{"product_id":"comparing-voting-systems-book-hannu-nurmi-9789401082686","title":"Comparing Voting Systems","description":"In many contexts of everyday life we find ourselves faced with the problem of reconciling the views of several persons. These problems are usually solved by resorting to some opinion aggre- gating procedure, like voting. Very often the problem is thought of as being solved after the decision to take a vote has been made and the ballots have been counted. Most official decision making bodies have formally instituted procedures of voting but in informal groups such procedures are typically chosen in casu. Curiously enough people do not seem to pay much attention to which particular procedure is being resorted to as long as some kind of voting takes place. As we shall see shortly the procedure being used often makes a great difference to the voting outcomes. Thus, the Question arises as to which voting procedure is best. This book is devoted to a discussion of this problem in the light of various criteria of optimality. We shall deal with a number of procedures that have been proposed for use or are actually in use in voting contexts. The aim of this book is to give an evaluation of the virtues and shortcomings of these procedures. On the basis of this evaluation the reader will hopefully be able to determine which procedure is optimal for the decision setting that he or she has in mind.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52141727842577,"sku":"NLS9789401082686","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789401082686.jpg?v=1757577986"},{"product_id":"evolutionary-theory-in-social-science-book-m-schmid-9789401082778","title":"Evolutionary Theory in Social Science","description":"In retrospect the 19th century tmdoubtedly seems to be the century of evolutionism. The 'discovery of time' and therewith the experience of variability was made by many sciences: not only historians worked on the elaboration and interpretation of this discovery, but also physicists, geographers, biologists and economists, demographers, archaelogists, and even philosophers. The successful empirical fotmdation of evolutive processes by Darwin and his disciples suggested Herbert Spencer's vigorously pursued efforts in searching for an extensive' catalogue of prime and deduced evolutionary principles that would allow to integrate the most different disciplines of natural and social sciences as well as the efforts of philosophers of ethics and epistemologists. Soon it became evident, however, that the claim for integration anticipated by far the actual results of these different disciplines. Darwin I s theory suffered from the fact that in the beginning a hereditary factor which could have his theory could not be detected, while the gainings of grotmd supported in the social sciences got lost in consequence of the completely ahistorical or biologistic speculations of some representatives of the evolutionary research programm and common socialdarwinistic misinterpretations.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52141756776721,"sku":"NLS9789401082778","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789401082778.jpg?v=1757578128"},{"product_id":"understanding-economic-behaviour-book-folke-lander-9789401076142","title":"Understanding Economic Behaviour","description":"may be related to another basic assumption in economic psychology: that the human capacity to process information from the environment is limited, and that the kind of optimal use of that information postulated in many economic theories is therefore not possible. The research methods used are mainly geared towards empirical research, and there mostly towards survey research and experimentation. Experimentation involves most often simulated behaviour in a laboratory, which allows the experimental manipulation of possible causes of behaviour which would not be possible in real life. Survey research is the most widely used instrument for investigating real-world behaviour, with all its caveats about establishing causal explanations. Several introductory books (e. g. , Fumham \u0026amp; Lewis, 1986; Lea, Tarpy, \u0026amp; Webley, 1987; van Raaij, van Veldhoven, \u0026amp; Wlimeryd, 1988) and articles (e. g. , van Raaij, 1979; Wiswede, 1988) have appeared recently, which try to give an overview of the field of economic psychology, and which, in varying degrees, demonstrate the three foundations of economic psychology just mentioned. Others have concentrated on certain subtopics, such as the psychology of the labour market (e. g. , Baxter, 1988; Pelzmann, 1986).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52141952696593,"sku":"NLS9789401076142","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789401076142.jpg?v=1757578803"},{"product_id":"social-decision-methodology-for-technological-projects-book-ca-vlek-9780792303718","title":"Social Decision Methodology for Technological Projects","description":"This book grew out of the conviction that the preparation and management of large-scale technological projects can be substantially improved. We have witnessed the often unhappy course of societal and political decision making concerning projects such as hazardous chemical installations, novel types of electric power plant or storage sites for solid wastes. This has led us to believe that probabilistic risk analysis, technical reliability analysis and environm, ental impact analysis are necessary but insufficient for making acceptable, and justifiable, social decisions about such projects. There is more to socio-technical decision making than applying acceptance rules based on neglige ably low accident probabilities or on maximum credible accidents. Consideration must also be given to psychological, social and political issues and methods of decision making. Our conviction initially gave rise to an international experts' workshop titled 'Social decision methodology for technological projects' (SDMTP) and held in May 1986 at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, at a time when Cvetkovich spent a sabbatical there. The work shop - aimed at surveying the issues and listing the methods to address them - was the first part of an effort whose second part was directed at the production of this volume. Plans called for the book to deal systematically with the main problems of socio-technical decision making; it was to list a number of useful approaches and methods; and it was to present a number of integrative conclusions and recommendations for both policy makers and methodologists.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52143167308049,"sku":"NLS9780792303718","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780792303718.jpg?v=1757583266"},{"product_id":"science-politics-and-morality-book-r-von-schomberg-9780792319979","title":"Science, Politics and Morality","description":"Current environmental problems and technological risks are a  challenge for a new institutional arrangement of the value spheres of  Science, Politics and Morality. Distinguished authors from different  European countries and America provide a cross-disciplinary  perspective on the problems of political decision making under the  conditions of scientific uncertainty. cases from biotechnology and the  environmental sciences are discussed.    The papers collected for this volume address the following themes: (i)  controversies about risks and political decision making; (ii) concepts  of science for policy; (iii) the use of social science in the policy  making process; (iv) ethical problems with developments in science and  technology; (v) public and state interests in the development and  control of technology.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52143550464273,"sku":"NLS9780792319979","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780792319979.jpg?v=1757584986"},{"product_id":"principia-economica-book-g-bernard-9789401069106","title":"Principia Economica","description":"It has already been said, if not written, that progress in knowledge in any domain consists mainly of expressing things that are well known in a different and, if possible, new way. That is the purpose of this book. 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I should also emphasize that the responsibility for the year's delay in the publishing of this volume is entirely mine, for two reasons. First of all, I have been involved in many works in very different fields. Second, the English translation of my 1943 contribution to the concept of cardinal utility took some time. The points of view the reader will find in this volume are often different and sometimes contradictory, but this can only increase the interest of its reading. In any case, this is not the editors' part to side with or against. Thus contributions to this volume are presented as they have been submit- ted to the editors. Of course, this does not mean that they entirely agree with the analyses presented. MAURICE ALAIS M. Allais and O. Hagen (eds.), Cardinalism, vii INTRODUCTION Everyone's conscious choices are assumed to reflect their preferences in different situations. 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Non-Bayesian positions deserve to be examined with much greater care, and the present work is an attempt to defend what I believe to be a coherent and reasonably detailed non-Bayesian account of decision theory. The main thesis I defend can be summarised as follows. Rational agents m- imise subjective expected utility, but contrary to what is claimed by Bayesians, ut- ity and subjective probability should not be de?ned in terms of preferences over uncertain prospects. On the contrary, rational decision makers need only consider preferences over certain outcomes. It will be shown that utility and probability fu- tions derived in a non-Bayesian manner can be used for generating preferences over uncertain prospects, that support the principle of maximising subjective expected utility. 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