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The ultimate objective of scientific research on decision making is two-fold: (a) to develop a theoretically sound technology for the optimal solution of decision problems, and (b) to formulate a descriptive theory of human decision making. The latter may, in tum, protect decision makers from being caught in the traps of their own limitations and biases. Recently, in decision making research the strong emphasis on well- defined laboratory tasks is decreasing in favour of more realistic studies in various practical settings. This may well have been caused by a growing awareness of the fact that decision-behaviour is strongly determined by situational factors, which makes it necessary to look into processes of interaction between the decision maker and the relevant task environ- ment. Almost inevitably there is a parallel shift of interest towards problems of utility measurement and the evaluation of consequences.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51066084688145,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51066087244049,"sku":"NIN9789027706034","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52127192613137,"sku":"NLS9789027706034","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9027706034.jpg?v=1751191379"},{"product_id":"philosophical-problems-of-statistical-inference-book-t-seidenfeld-9789027709653","title":"Philosophical Problems of Statistical Inference","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51066525188369,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51066527678737,"sku":"NIN9789027709653","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52135416463633,"sku":"NLS9789027709653","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9027709653.jpg?v=1751352223"},{"product_id":"response-models-for-detection-of-change-book-anatol-rapoport-9789027709349","title":"Response Models for Detection of Change","description":"This book reports our research on detection of change processes that underlie psychophysical, learning, medical diagnosis, military, and pro­ duction control situations, and share three major features. First, the states of the process are not directly observable but become gradually known with the sequential acquisition of fallible information over time. Second, the mechanism that generates the fallible information is not stationary; rather, it is subjected to a sudden and irrevocable change. Thirdly, in­ complete, probabilistic information about the time of change is available when the process commences. The purpose of the book is to characterize this class of detection of change processes, to derive the optimal policy that minimizes total expected loss, and, most importantly, to develop testable response models, based on simple decision rules, for describing detection of change behavior. The book is theoretical in the sense that it offers mathematical models of multi-stage decision behavior and solutions to optimization problems. However, it is not anti-empirical, as it aims to stimulate new experimental research and to generate applications. Throughout the book, questions of experimental verification are briefly considered, and existing data from two studies are brought to bear on the validity of the models. The work is not complete; it only provides a starting point for investigating how people detect a change in an uncertain environment, balancing between the cost of delay in detecting the change and the cost of making an incor­ rect terminal decision.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51330202665233,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51330205450513,"sku":"CIN9027709343VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9027709343.jpg?v=1751384555"},{"product_id":"determinants-and-controls-of-scientific-development-book-kd-knorr-9789027706003","title":"Determinants and Controls of Scientific Development","description":"This book constitutes the outcome of an international conference held at the Otto-Mobes-Volkswirtschaftsschule, Graz-Stifting( Austria), from June 16 to 22, 1974. The conference was initiated by a project group working on determinants and controls of social science development at the In- stitute for Advanced Studies and Scientific Research in Vienna and or- ganized by the editors of this volume. It was held under the auspices of the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research. The main topics of the conference were those at the forefront of the 'state of argumentation' (to borrow from one of our contributors) in philosophy and sociology of science ever since the controversy between Thomas S. Kuhn and Sir Karl R. Popper has sharpened our awareness for the methodological and substantial presuppositions involved with questions of growth and development in science. Let us give two examples of those topics. The borderline between sociology of science and philo- sophy of science has become more and more unclear; while the work of at least some philosophers of science comes to have an empirical flavour, sociologists of science are increasingly apt to include logical and methodo- logical components of the research process as their objects of examina- tion. Papers included in this volume testify to both tendencies.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52121595838737,"sku":"NLS9789027706003","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027706003.jpg?v=1757432548"},{"product_id":"morality-and-universality-book-nt-potter-9789027719096","title":"Morality and Universality","description":"In the past 25 years or so, the issue of ethical universalizability has figured prominently in theoretical as well as practical ethics. The term, 'universaliz- ability' used in connection with ethical considerations, was apparently first introduced in the mid-1950s by R. M. Hare to refer to what he characterized as a logical thesis about certain sorts of evaluative sentences (Hare, 1955). The term has since been used to cover a broad variety of ethical considerations including those associated with the ideas of impartiality, consistency, justice, equality, and reversibility as well as those raised in the familar questions: 'What if everyone did that?' and 'How would you like it if someone did that to you? But this recent effloresence of the use of the term 'universalizability' is something that has deep historical roots, and has been central in various forms to the thinking about morality of some of the greatest and most influential philosophers in the western tradition. While the term is relatively new, the ideas it is now used to express have a long history. Most of these ideas and questions have been or can be formulated into a principle to be discussed, criticized, or defended. As we discuss these ideas below this prin- ciple will be stated on a separate numbered line. The concepts of justice and equality were closely linked in Greek thought. 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(The First International Conference, FUR-82, was held in Oslo and some of the papers presented on that occasion were published by Reidel in the volume Foundations of Utility and Risk Theory with Applications, edited by Bernt P. Stigum and Fred Wenst p). The theory of choice under uncertainty involves a vast range of controversial issues in many fields like economics, philosophy, psychology, mathematics and statistics. The idea of discussing these problems in international conferences has been successful: two conferences have been held and others will follow. The climate of the debate has changed in the meantime, partly as a result of these conferences. It is no more only a question of attacking or defending the neo-Bernoullian assumptions, but also of proposing wider generalizations and including new elements in the analysis of the decision process. For instance Amartya Sen - comparing the two current notions of rationality, internal consistency and self-interest pursuit introduces the concept of reasoning and considers the irrationality which may result from the failure of a positive correspondence between reasoning and choice or from a limited capacity of reasoning. Rationality is also considered with respect to the controversial axiom of strong independence. John C. Harsanyi introduces the concept of practical certainty, i. e.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52125039984913,"sku":"NLS9789401085519","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789401085519.jpg?v=1757461465"},{"product_id":"developments-in-the-methodology-of-social-science-book-w-leinfellner-9789027704931","title":"Developments in the Methodology of Social Science","description":"Philosophy of Science deals with the problem, 'What is science?' It seems that the answer to this question can only be found if we have an answer to the question, 'How does science function?' Thus, the study of the methodology of social sciences is a prominent factor in any analysis of these sciences. The history of philosophy shows clearly that the answer to the question, 'How does science function?' was the conditio sine qua non of any kind of philosophy of science, epistemology and even of logic. Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Mill, Russell, to mention a few classical authors, clearly emphasized the primacy of methodology of science for any kind of philosophy of science. One may even state that analyses of the presup- positions, the foundations, the aims, goals and purposes of science are nothing else than analyses of their general and specific formal, as well as practical and empirical methods. Thus, the whole program of any phi- losophy of science is dependent on the analysis of the methods of sciences and the establishment of their criteria. If the study of scientific method is the predominant factor in the philosophy of science, then all the other problems will depend on the outcome of such a study. 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Models of such situations, as they are conceived in game theory, involve (1) a set of decision makers, called players; (2) a set of strategies available to each player; (3) a set of outcomes, each of which is a result of particular choices of strategies made by the players on a given play of the game; and (4) a set of payoffs accorded to each player in each of the possible outcomes. It is assumed that each player is 'individually rational', in the sense that his preference ordering of the outcomes is determined by the order of magnitudes of his (and only his) associated payoffs. Further, a player is rational in the sense that he assumes that every other player is rational in the above sense. The rational player utilizes knowledge of the other players' payoffs in guiding his choice of strategy, because it gives him information about how the other players' choices are guided. 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Behavior settings are the natural units of social activity into which people sort themselves to get on with the busi- ness of daily life--grocery stores, school classes, reI i- gious services, meetings, athletic events, and so on. The descriptive power of behavior settings has been established in surveys of complete communities in the United States and England, of high schools ranging in size from fewer than 100 to more than 2000 students, of rehabilitation centers in hospitals, and of several other types of organizations. Behavior settings are empirical facts of everyday life. A description of a community or an organization in terms of behavior settings corresponds to common experi- ence. In many cases, small establishments are behavior settings; the paid roles in behavior settingsare occupa- tions; and the buildings and equipment of establishments are the buildings and equipment of behavior settings.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52125998252305,"sku":"NLS9789027720207","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027720207.jpg?v=1757470791"},{"product_id":"information-inference-and-decision-book-g-menges-9789027704238","title":"Information, Inference and Decision","description":"Under the title 'Information, Inference and Decision' this volume in the Theory and Decision Library presents some papers on issues from the borderland of statistical inference philosophy and epistemology, written by statisticians and decision theorists who belonged or are allied to the former Saarbriicken school of statistical decision theory. In the first part I make an attempt to outline an objective theory of inductive behaviour, on the basis of R. A. Fisher's statistical inference philosophy, on the one hand, and R. Carnap's inductive logic, on the other. A special problem arising in the context of the new theory, viz., the problem of vagueness of concepts (in particular in the social sciences) is treated separately by H. Skala and myself. B. Leiner has contributed some biographical and bibliographical notes on the objective theory of inductive behaviour. Part I is concerned with inference philosophy. D. A. S. Fraser, the founder of structural inference theory, characterizes and compares some inference philosophies, and discusses his own and the arguments of the critics of his structural theory. In my opinion, Fraser's structural infer- ence theory is suited to complete Fisher's inference philosophy in some essential points, if not to replace it. An interesting task for future re- search work is to establish the connection between Fraser's theory and Carnap's ideas in the framework of an objective theory of inductive behaviour.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52126339760401,"sku":"NLS9789027704238","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027704238.jpg?v=1757475616"},{"product_id":"methodological-unity-of-science-book-m-bunge-9789027703545","title":"The Methodological Unity of Science","description":"The present volume collects some of the talks given at the Bertrand Russell Colloquium on Exact Philosophy, attached to the McGill University Foundations and Philosophy of Science Unit. It also includes a paper, on Bertrand Russell's method of philosophizing, read at the memorial symposium held at Sir Gorge Williams University shortly after the philosopher's death. All the papers appear here for the first time. Unlike many a philosophy of science anthology, this one is not center- ed on the philosophy of physics. In fact the papers deal with conceptual and, in particular, philosophical problems that pop up in almost every one of the provinces of the vast territory constituted by the foundations, meth- odology and philosophy of science. A couple of border territories which are in the process of being infiltrated have been added for good measure. The inclusion of papers in the philosophy of formal science and in the philosophies of physics and of biology, in a volume belonging to a series devoted to the philosophy and methodology of the social and behavioral sciences, should raise no eyebrows. Because the sciences of man make use of logic and mathematics, they are interested in questions such as whether the formal sciences have anything to do with reality (rather than with our theories about reality) and whether or not logic has kept up with the practice of mathematicians. These two problems are tackled in Part I, on the philosophy of formal science.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52126602854673,"sku":"NLS9789027703545","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027703545.jpg?v=1757477368"},{"product_id":"social-system-accounts-book-k-fox-9789401088756","title":"Social System Accounts","description":"This book results from a research program on which I have spent most of my time since 1974. It addresses two of the major problems facing social system account ing: how to measure and account for nonmarket activities and how to combine social and economic indicators. The solution I propose is accounts based on behavior settings, a concept originated by Roger G. Barker more than thirty years ago. Behavior settings are the natural units of social activity into which people sort themselves to get on with the busi- ness of daily life--grocery stores, school classes, reI i- gious services, meetings, athletic events, and so on. The descriptive power of behavior settings has been established in surveys of complete communities in the United States and England, of high schools ranging in size from fewer than 100 to more than 2000 students, of rehabilitation centers in hospitals, and of several other types of organizations. Behavior settings are empirical facts of everyday life. A description of a community or an organization in terms of behavior settings corresponds to common experi- ence. In many cases, small establishments are behavior settings; the paid roles in behavior settingsare occupa- tions; and the buildings and equipment of establishments are the buildings and equipment of behavior settings.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52126816534801,"sku":"NLS9789401088756","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789401088756.jpg?v=1757480325"},{"product_id":"operations-research-in-progress-book-gustav-feichtinger-9789400979031","title":"Operations Research in Progress","description":"The first Joint Meeting of the Austrian and Swiss Operations Research Societies was held at the University of Technology in Vienna, Austria, from 22-24 September 1980. A selection of the papers then presented are published in this volume. The papers included provide a picture of Operations Research as a discipline comprehending various methods and models. The volume is divided into two parts. The first part contains papers on mathematical programming and optimal control theory. Moreover, two papers on decision and game theory are included as well as two on biomathematical to ics. Being more heterogeneous, the second part, on stochastic models, includes such topics as queueing theory, econometrics and time series analysis. As a special feature of the symposium, a series of applications of OR models in energy planning were discussed, e.g., load and demand forecasting, power distribution and extension planning, reliability and work-safety, etc. These papers have been incorporated into parts one and two according to the models used. GUSTAV FEICHTINGER PETER  CAL Institut fUr Okonometrie und Institut fUr Operations Research und Operations Research mathematische Methoden der Wirtschafts- Technische UniversitHt wissenschaften Wien UniversitHt ZUrich November 198 I ix Gustav Feichtinger and Peter Kall (eds.), Operations Research in Progress, ix.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52126908350737,"sku":"NLS9789400979031","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789400979031.jpg?v=1757481166"},{"product_id":"economic-information-decision-and-prediction-book-m-marschak-9789027711977","title":"Economic Information, Decision, and Prediction","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52126973821201,"sku":"NLS9789027711977","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027711977.jpg?v=1757481725"},{"product_id":"aspects-of-vagueness-book-heinz-j-skala-9789400963115","title":"Aspects of Vagueness","description":"The Second World Conference on Mathematics at the Service of Man was held at the Universidad Politecnica de Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain, June 28 to July 3, 1982. The first volume of the Proceedings of the Conference, entitled Functional Equations-Theory and Applications has appeared in the Reidel series Mathematics and Its Applications. The papers in this volume consist of the invited lectures delivered at the Conference, Section 7: Non-Classical Logics and Modelling, as well as some selected papers which offer an introduction to the philosophy, methodology and to the lite- rature of the broad and fascinating field of vagueness, imprecision and uncertainty. The contributed papers appeared in the volume of photo-offset preprints distributed at the Conference. It is our hope that the papers present a good sample with respect to the background, the formalism and practice of this area of research as far as we understand it today. As the subject Vagueness touches many aspects of human thinking, the contributions have been made from a broad spectrum ranging from philo ophy through pure mathematics to probability theory and mathematical economics, therefore the careful reader should find some new insights here. In conclusion, the editors want to thank all authors who have contributed to this volume; the publishers of Commenta- tiones Mathematicae Universitatis Carolinae for permission to reprint the paper Fuzziness and Fuzzy Equality, Commentationes Mathematicae Universitatis Carolinae 23 (1982), 249-267, and D. Reidel for friendly cooperation.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52127046172945,"sku":"NLS9789400963115","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789400963115.jpg?v=1757482255"},{"product_id":"economic-information-decision-and-prediction-book-m-marschak-9789027711953","title":"Economic Information, Decision, and Prediction","description":"The papers of Jacob Marschak which follow in these volumes are an extraordinary combination of original and fruitful departures in economic and social thought, superb clarity of exposition, and sensitivity to the values of earlier work and even competing traditions. They make us marvel alike at their variety, their quantity, and their quality. But they do not, even so, fully reflect Marschak's contributions to the development of social science. He has had an unusual influence as one who exercises leadership. In a formal, organizational sense, this role has been manifest in his capacity as Director of the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics, then at the University of Chicago, in that organization's most productive and influential period, and later in his central role in the Western Management Science Institute, at the University of California at Los Angeles. I can speak from first-hand knowledge about the first. His special capacities are, first, the recognition of promising new concepts and of promising young scholars, and, second, getting his colleagues to join him in developing the ideas and involving them fully in the necessary tasks. There was an unusual combination of strength and humility in his methods; a display of force in pushing the work along but a willingness, almost an insistence, on treating even the most junior associate as a fully equal colleague in intellectual develop- ment, whose criticism of himself was to be encouraged. His leadership has been exercised in the absence of formal positions.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52127162958097,"sku":"NLS9789027711953","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027711953.jpg?v=1757483809"},{"product_id":"stochastic-programming-book-vv-kolbin-9789027707505","title":"Stochastic Programming","description":"This book is devoted to the problems of stochastic (or probabilistic) programming. The author took as his basis the specialized lectures which he delivered to the graduates from the economic cybernetics department of Leningrad University beginning in 1967. Since 1971 the author has delivered a specialized course on Stochastic Programming to the gradu­ ates from the faculty of applied mathematics\/management processes at Leningrad University. The present monograph consists of seven chapters. In Chapter I, which is of an introductory character, consideration is given to the problems of uncertainty and probability, used for modelling complicated systems. Fundamental indications for the classification of stochastic pro­ gramming problems are given. Chapter II is devoted to the analysis of various models of chance-constrained stochastic programming problems. Examples of technological and applied economic problems of management with chance-constraints are given. In Chapter III two-stage stochastic programming problems are investigated, various models are given, and these models are qualitatively analyzed. In the conclusion of the chapter consideration is given to: the transport problem with random data, the problem of the determination of production volume, and the problem of planning the flights of aircraft as two-stage stochastic programming problems. Multi-stage stochastic programming problems are investigated in Chapter IV. The dependencies between prior and posterior decision rules and decision distributions are given. Dual problems are investigated.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52131313221905,"sku":"NLS9789027707505","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027707505.jpg?v=1757509224"},{"product_id":"social-action-book-r-tuomela-9789027718716","title":"Social Action","description":"The papers contained in this volume are based on the contributions to an international, interdisciplinary Symposium entitled 'Analytical and Sociologi- cal Action Theories' which took place in Berlin (West) on September 1-3, 1982. Each part comprises a main paper followed by two (in Part IV three) papers commenting on it. On the whole there is an equal division into philo- sophical and sociological papers. In particular each main paper receives both inter- and innerdisciplinary comments. The Berlin Symposium was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Bonn) and, to a smaller extent, by the Freie UniversiHit Berlin; both grants are acknowledged gratefully. Berlin and Helsinki, May 1984 GOTFRIED SEBAS RAIMO TUOMELA vii GOTFRIED SEBAS INTRODUCTION I. It is a striking fact that the extended efforts of both sociologists and analytical philosophers to work out what is termed a 'theory of action' have taken little, if any, account of each other. Yet of the various reasons for this that come to mind none appears to be such as to foil any hopes for fruitful interdisciplinary exchange. Being concerned, apparently, with the same set of phenomena, viz. individual and social actions, the two theories can reasonably be expected to be partially overlapping as well as competitive and complementary. Accordingly each can eventually be shown by the other to need completion or revision. Whether or to what extent this is the case is subject to inquiry and discussion.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52132094804241,"sku":"NLS9789027718716","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027718716.jpg?v=1757514931"},{"product_id":"contributions-to-a-philosophy-of-technology-book-f-rapp-9789027704337","title":"Contributions to a Philosophy of Technology","description":"The highly sophisticated techniques of modern engineering are normally conceived of in practical terms. Corresponding to the instrumental function of technology, they are designed to direct the forces of nature according to human purposes. Yet, as soon as the realm of mere skills is exceeded, the intended useful results can only be achieved through planned and preconceived action processes involving the deliberately considered application of well designed tools and devices. This is to say that in all complex cases theoretical reasoning becomes an indispensable means to accomplish the pragmatic technological aims. Hence the abstracting from the actual concrete function of technology opens the way to concentrate attention on the general conceptual framework involved. If this approach is adopted the relevant knowledge and the procedures applied clearly exhibit a logic of their own. This point of view leads to a methodological and even an epistemological analysis of the theoretical structure and the specific methods of procedure characteristic of modern technology. Investigations of this kind, that can be described as belonging to an ana- lytical philosophy of technology, form the topic of this anthology. The type of research in question here is closely akin to that of the philosophy of science. 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Because I am convinced that criticism, if not confused with mere polemics, is apt to stimulate the maturation of a scientific or philosophical theory, I invited Reinhard Low to present his critical view of evolutionary epistemology and to indicate some limits of our evolutionary conceptions. The main purpose of this book is to meet the urgent need of both science and philosophy for a comprehensive up-to-date approach to the problem of knowledge, going beyond the traditional disciplinary boundaries of scientific and philosophical thought. Evolutionary epistemology has emerged as a naturalistic and science-oriented view of knowledge taking cognizance of, and compatible with, results of biological, psychological, anthropological and linguistic inquiries concerning the structure and development of man's cognitive apparatus. 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The Colloquium of the Philosophy Department of the University of Western Ontario (29-31 Octo- ber, 1971) at which initial versions of the first eight papers were delivered was entitled 'Political Theory'; and while the organizers anticipated and indeed welcomed topicality in the issues accorded priority arid in the empirical evidence invoked, they were also hoping for a reasonably comprehensive explorat ion of some of the central issues of political philosophy. For this reason it was quickly decided that in such a field a philosophical focus on clarification of ordering concepts required the suppIement - and test - of researches into more particular subject maUers by social scientists. Thus, to speak in general terms (where the specializatlons and their taxonomies multi- ply fissiparously ), contributors include political scientists, economists and sociologists (Barnard, Baston, Tullock, Rapoport) as well as philosophers (Scriven, Morgenbesser, Braybrooke, TayIor), and juxtaposed as proponents and commentators -to generate exchanges across disciplinary frontiers. While the five additional invited papers are alI by professional philosophers, they extend the original Colloquium either by continuing controversy on its funda- mental issues (e. g., Rubinoff, Nielsen, Roy) or by their continued explorations in what are acknowledged to be boundary areas (e. g., Schick, Wartofsky). 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The Berlin Symposium was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Bonn) and, to a smaller extent, by the Freie UniversiHit Berlin; both grants are acknowledged gratefully. Berlin and Helsinki, May 1984 GOTFRIED SEBAS RAIMO TUOMELA vii GOTFRIED SEBAS INTRODUCTION I. It is a striking fact that the extended efforts of both sociologists and analytical philosophers to work out what is termed a 'theory of action' have taken little, if any, account of each other. Yet of the various reasons for this that come to mind none appears to be such as to foil any hopes for fruitful interdisciplinary exchange. Being concerned, apparently, with the same set of phenomena, viz. individual and social actions, the two theories can reasonably be expected to be partially overlapping as well as competitive and complementary. Accordingly each can eventually be shown by the other to need completion or revision. 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The party and economic management of all levels. scientists. and experts are faced with the task of introducing. in a short period of time. radical changes in the plan- ning and operating. creating thereby a holistic management sys- tem based on scientific recommendations and effective practical experience.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52136793014545,"sku":"NLS9789401085564","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789401085564.jpg?v=1757555067"},{"product_id":"expected-utility-hypotheses-and-the-allais-paradox-book-m-allais-9789027709608","title":"Expected Utility Hypotheses and the Allais Paradox","description":"Utility theory or, value theory in general, is certainly the cornerstone of decision theory, game theory, microecon mics, and all social and political theories which deal with public decisions. 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Second, the mechanism that generates the fallible information is not stationary; rather, it is subjected to a sudden and irrevocable change. Thirdly, in- complete, probabilistic information about the time of change is available when the process commences. The purpose of the book is to characterize this class of detection of change processes, to derive the optimal policy that minimizes total expected loss, and, most importantly, to develop testable response models, based on simple decision rules, for describing detection of change behavior. The book is theoretical in the sense that it offers mathematical models of multi-stage decision behavior and solutions to optimization problems. However, it is not anti-empirical, as it aims to stimulate new experimental research and to generate applications. Throughout the book, questions of experimental verification are briefly considered, and existing data from two studies are brought to bear on the validity of the models. 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The papers included provide a picture of Operations Research as a discipline comprehending various methods and models. The volume is divided into two parts. The first part contains papers on mathematical programming and optimal control theory. Moreover, two papers on decision and game theory are included as well as two on biomathematical to ics. Being more heterogeneous, the second part, on stochastic models, includes such topics as queueing theory, econometrics and time series analysis. As a special feature of the symposium, a series of applications of OR models in energy planning were discussed, e.g., load and demand forecasting, power distribution and extension planning, reliability and work-safety, etc. These papers have been incorporated into parts one and two according to the models used. GUSTAV FEICHTINGER PETER  CAL Institut fUr Okonometrie und Institut fUr Operations Research und Operations Research mathematische Methoden der Wirtschafts- Technische UniversitHt wissenschaften Wien UniversitHt ZUrich November 198 I ix Gustav Feichtinger and Peter Kall (eds.), Operations Research in Progress, ix.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52138457563409,"sku":"NLS9789027714640","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027714640.jpg?v=1757562958"},{"product_id":"algebra-of-conscience-book-va-lefebvre-9789401090537","title":"Algebra of Conscience","description":"In this book two ethical systems are described in the language of mathematics. Ordinarily mathematics is thought to be a science of quantity. Indeed, manipulation of quantities constitutes much of mathematics. 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Most of these ideas and questions have been or can be formulated into a principle to be discussed, criticized, or defended. As we discuss these ideas below this prin- ciple will be stated on a separate numbered line. The concepts of justice and equality were closely linked in Greek thought. 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PROGRES IN UTILITY AND RISK THEORY At the First International Congress of Utility and Risk Theory in Oslo 1982 (FUR-82) it appeared to be a widespread feeling among the participants that the conference signalled something like a paradigm shift in the field. This does not necessarily mean that old truths were discarded and replaced by new ones, but rather that new theories and new empirical evidence were brought forth, compelling old theories to be critically analyzed from new angels. Some of the papers presented at FUR-82 have been published by Reidel in 1983 in a volume edited by Stigum and Wenst0p. The present volume contains com- mentaries on a number of the papers presented at the conference together with broader outlines of current views on the theory. The observation that utility and risk theory now appears to be in a state of rapid change has prompted us to choose the title PROGRES IN UTILITY AND RISK THEORY for the book, in the belief that science always moves from poorer to more advanced paradigms or from weaker to more forceful theories. In other words, change is usually progress, even though intermediate stages in a para- digm shift may be bewildering, to say the least.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52141883130129,"sku":"NLS9789400963535","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789400963535.jpg?v=1757578595"},{"product_id":"determinants-and-controls-of-scientific-development-book-kd-knorr-9789401018333","title":"Determinants and Controls of Scientific Development","description":"This book constitutes the outcome of an international conference held at the Otto-Mobes-Volkswirtschaftsschule, Graz-Stifting( Austria), from June 16 to 22, 1974. The conference was initiated by a project group working on determinants and controls of social science development at the In- stitute for Advanced Studies and Scientific Research in Vienna and or- ganized by the editors of this volume. It was held under the auspices of the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research. The main topics of the conference were those at the forefront of the 'state of argumentation' (to borrow from one of our contributors) in philosophy and sociology of science ever since the controversy between Thomas S. Kuhn and Sir Karl R. Popper has sharpened our awareness for the methodological and substantial presuppositions involved with questions of growth and development in science. Let us give two examples of those topics. The borderline between sociology of science and philo- sophy of science has become more and more unclear; while the work of at least some philosophers of science comes to have an empirical flavour, sociologists of science are increasingly apt to include logical and methodo- logical components of the research process as their objects of examina- tion. Papers included in this volume testify to both tendencies.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52142189019409,"sku":"NLS9789401018333","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52932537319697,"sku":"NIN9789401018333","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789401018333.jpg?v=1757579524"},{"product_id":"revolutions-systems-and-theories-book-hj-johnson-9789400998964","title":"Revolutions, Systems and Theories","description":"In spite of the seeming heterogeneity of topics in its title - Revolutions, Systems, and Theories - this volume purports to be something more than a random collection of Essays in Political Philosophy. The Colloquium of the Philosophy Department of the University of Western Ontario (29-31 Octo- ber, 1971) at which initial versions of the first eight papers were delivered was entitled 'Political Theory'; and while the organizers anticipated and indeed welcomed topicality in the issues accorded priority arid in the empirical evidence invoked, they were also hoping for a reasonably comprehensive explorat ion of some of the central issues of political philosophy. For this reason it was quickly decided that in such a field a philosophical focus on clarification of ordering concepts required the suppIement - and test - of researches into more particular subject maUers by social scientists. Thus, to speak in general terms (where the specializatlons and their taxonomies multi- ply fissiparously ), contributors include political scientists, economists and sociologists (Barnard, Baston, Tullock, Rapoport) as well as philosophers (Scriven, Morgenbesser, Braybrooke, TayIor), and juxtaposed as proponents and commentators -to generate exchanges across disciplinary frontiers. While the five additional invited papers are alI by professional philosophers, they extend the original Colloquium either by continuing controversy on its funda- mental issues (e. g., Rubinoff, Nielsen, Roy) or by their continued explorations in what are acknowledged to be boundary areas (e. g., Schick, Wartofsky). The greatest topical emphasis is that on revolution.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52142270775569,"sku":"NLS9789400998964","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789400998964.jpg?v=1757579674"},{"product_id":"pragmatic-aspects-of-human-communication-book-hb-cherry-9789027705204","title":"Pragmatic Aspects of Human Communication","description":"'Human Communication' is a field of interest of enormous breadth, being one which has concerned students of many different disciplines. It spans the imagined 'gap' between the 'arts' and the 'sciences', but it forms no unified academic subject. There is no commonly accepted terminology to cover aU aspects. The eight articles comprising this book have been chosen to illustrate something of the diversity yet, at the same time, to be comprehensible to readers from different academic disciplines. They cannot pretend to cover the whole field  Some attempt has been made to present them in an order which represents a continuity of theme, though this is merely an opinion. Most publications of this type form the proceedings of some sympo- sium, or conference. In this case, however, there has been no such unifying influence, no collaboration, no discussions. The authors have been drawn from a number of different countries. The first article, by John Marshall and Roger Wales (Great Britain) concerns the pragmatic values of communication, starting by considering bird-song and passing to the infinitely more complex 'meaningful' values of human language and pictures. The 'pragmatic aspect' means the usefulness - what does language or bird song do for humans and birds? What adaptation or survival values does it have? These questions are then considered in relation to brain specialisation for representation of experience and cognition.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52142344012049,"sku":"NLS9789027705204","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027705204.jpg?v=1757579823"},{"product_id":"coping-with-complexity-book-hw-gottinger-9789400970267","title":"Coping with Complexity","description":"In this book I develop a theory of complexity for economics and manage- ment sciences. This book is addressed to the mathematically or analytically oriented economist, psychologist or management scientist. It could also be of interest to engineers, computer scientists, biologists, physicists and ecologists who have a constant desire to go beyond the bounds of their respective disciplines. The unifying theme is: we live in a complex world, but how can we cope with complexity? If the book has made the reader curious, and if he looks at modelling, problem recognition and problem solving within his field of competence in a more complex way, it will have achieved its goal. The starting point is the recognition that complexity is a well-defined concept in mathematics (e.g. in topological dynamics), computer science, information theory and artificial intelligence. But it is a rather diffuse concept in other fields, sometimes it has only descriptive value or even worse, it is only used in a colloquial sense. The systematic investigation of complexity phenomena has reached a mature status within computer science. Indices of computer size, capacity and performance root ultimately in John von Neumann's paradigmatic model of a machine, though other 1 roots point to McCulloch and Pitts, not to forget Alan Turing. Offsprings of this development include: -complexity of formal systems and recursiveness; -cellular automata and the theory of self-reproducing machines; -theory of program or computational complexity; -theory of sequential machines; -problem solving, cognitive science, pattern recognition and decision processes.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52142474526993,"sku":"NLS9789400970267","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789400970267.jpg?v=1757580336"},{"product_id":"spatial-statistics-and-models-book-gl-gaile-9789027716187","title":"Spatial Statistics and Models","description":"The quantitative revolution in geography has passed. The spirited debates of the past decades have, in one sense, been resolved by the inclusion of quantitative techniques into the typical geographer's set of methodological tools. A new decade is upon us. Throughout the quantitative revolution, geographers ransacked related disciplines and mathematics in order to find tools which might be applicable to problems of a spatial nature. The early success of Berry and Marble's Spatial Analysis and Garrison and Marble's volumes on Quantitative Geog- raphy is testimony to their accomplished search. New developments often depend heavily on borrowed ideas. It is only after these developments have been established that the necessary groundwork for true innovation ob- tains. In the last decade, geographers significantly -augmented their methodologi- cal base by developing quantitative techniques which are specifically directed towards analysis of explicitly spatial problems. It should be pointed out, however, that the explicit incorporation of space into quantitative techniques has not been the sole domain of geographers. Mathematicians, geologists, meteorologists, economists, and regional scientists have shared the geo- grapher's interest in the spatial component of their analytical tools.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52142547009809,"sku":"NLS9789027716187","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027716187.jpg?v=1757580742"},{"product_id":"papers-in-game-theory-book-jc-harsanyi-9789027713612","title":"Papers in Game Theory","description":"This volume contains twelve of my game-theoretical papers, published in the period of 1956-80. It complements my Essays on Ethics, Social Behavior, and Scientific Explanation, Reidel, 1976, and my Rational Behavior and Bargaining Equilibrium in Games and Social Situations, Cambridge University Press, 1977. These twelve papers deal with a wide range of game-theoretical problems. But there is a common intellectual thread going though all of them: they are all parts of an attempt to generalize and combine various game-theoretical solution concepts into a unified solution theory yielding one-point solutions for both cooperative and noncooperative games, and covering even such 'non-classical' games as games with incomplete information. SECTION A The first three papers deal with bargaining models. The first one discusses Nash's two-person bargaining solution and shows its equivalence with Zeuthen's bargaining theory. The second considers the rationality postulates underlying the Nash-Zeuthen theory and defends it against Schelling's objections. The third extends the Shapley value to games without transferable utility and proposes a solution concept that is at the same time a generaliza- tion of the Shapley value and of the Nash bargaining solution.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52142851522833,"sku":"NLS9789027713612","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027713612.jpg?v=1757581608"},{"product_id":"foundations-of-utility-and-risk-theory-with-applications-book-bernt-p-stigum-9789027712394","title":"Foundations of Utility and Risk Theory with Applications","description":"In this volume we present some o the papers that were delivered at FUR-82 - the First International Con erence on Foundations o Utility and Risk Theory in Oslo, June 1982. The purpose o the con erence was to provide a orum within which scientists could report on interesting applications o modern decision theory and exchange ideas about controversial issues in the oundations o the theory o choice under un- certainty. With that purpose in mind we have selected a mixture of applied and theoretical papers that we hope will appeal to a wide spectrum o readers rom graduate students in social science departments and business schools to people involved in making hardheaded decisions in business and government. In an introductory article Ole Hagen gives an overview o various paradoxes in utility and risk theory and discusses these in the light o scientific methodology. He concludes the article by calling or joint efforts to provide decision makers with warkable theories. Kenneth Arrow takes up the same issue on a broad basis in his paper where he discusses the implications o behavior under uncertainty for policy. In the theoretical papers the reader will ind attempts at de initive Statements of the meaning o old concepts and suggestions for the adoption o new concepts. For instance, Maurice Allais discusses four di ferent interpretations o the axioms o probability and explains the need or an empirical characterization o the concept of chance.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52142867775761,"sku":"NLS9789027712394","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027712394.jpg?v=1757581702"},{"product_id":"decision-theory-and-social-ethics-book-hw-gottinger-9789027709370","title":"Decision Theory and Social Ethics","description":"Ethics, as one of the most respectable disciplines of philosophy, has undergone a drastic and revolutionary change in recent time. There are three main trends of this development. The first trend can be described as a tendency towards a rigorous formal and analytical language. This means simply that ethics has created beside its own formalized set- theoretical language a variety of new formalized, logical and mathemati- cal methods and concepts. Thus ethics has become a formalized meta- or epidiscipline which is going to replace the traditional concepts, principles and ethical methods in the realm of social sciences. It is clear that a formalized form of ethics can be used more easily in social, economic and political theories if there are ethical conflicts to be solved. This first trend can be regarded as a conditio sine qua non for application in, and imposing ethical solutions on, social scientific theories. The second trend may be characterized as an association- or unification-tendency of a formalized and analytical ethics with decision theory. Decision theory as a new interdiscipline of social sciences is actually an assemblage of a variety of subtheories such as value-utility theory, game theory, collective decision theory, etc. Harsanyi has called this complex of subtheories a general theory of human behavior. 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Nany of them did not even realize - at least they gave no utterance to it - that applying macro data in micro models raises considerable problems. Those who did mention the difficulty, almost always belittled its importance. Fortunately, there are noteworthy exceptions. Thinking about aggregation raises at least two questions: Why or why not aggregate? and How to aggregate and, in particular, to what degree? General answers to these questions can only be given in uninformative wording (as many assertions in economics): one aggregates for the sake of tractability, because of the lack of (individual) data, to avoid or to reduce multicollineartiy, to save degrees of freedom; one abstains from aggregation to avoid loss of information, to avoid aggregation biases and one aggregates such and to such degree as to bypass or reduce the drawbacks mentioned above.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52142945566993,"sku":"NLS9789027717122","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027717122.jpg?v=1757582106"},{"product_id":"decision-making-and-change-in-human-affairs-book-h-jungermann-9789027708557","title":"Decision Making and Change in Human Affairs","description":"Proceedings of the Fifth Research Conference on Subjective  Probability, Utility, and Decision Making, Darmstadt 1975","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52143098134801,"sku":"NLS9789027708557","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027708557.jpg?v=1757582971"},{"product_id":"foundations-of-expected-utility-book-pc-fishburn-9789027714206","title":"The Foundations of Expected Utility","description":"This book offers a unified treatment of my research in the foundations of expected utility theory from around 1965 to 1980. While parts are new, the presentation draws heavily on published articles and a few chapters in my 1970 monograph on utility theory. The diverse notations and styles of the sources have of course been reconciled here, and their topics arranged in a logical sequence. The two parts of the book take their respective cues from the von Neumann-Morgenstern axiomatization of preferences between risky options and from Savage's foundational treatment of decision making under uncertainty. Both parts are studies in the axiomatics of preferences for decision situations and in numerical representations for preferences. Proofs of the representation and uniqueness theorems appear at the ends of the chapters so as not to impede the flow of the discussion. A few warnings on notation are in order. The numbers for theorems cited within a chapter have no prefix if they appear in that chapter, but otherwise carry a chapter prefix (Theorem 3.2 is Theorem 2 in Chapter 3). All lower case Greek letters refer to numbers in the closed interval from o to 1. The same symbol in different chapters has essentially the same meaning with one major exception: x, y, ... mean quite different things in different chapters. I am indebted to many people for their help and encouragement.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52143152726289,"sku":"NLS9789027714206","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789027714206.jpg?v=1757583202"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/theory-and-decision-library-book-series.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}