Abstract
Over the past several years, we have attempted to model from an open systems perspective human evaluation and decision-making, both individual and collective (Burns and Meeker, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976; Baumgartner et al, 1975a). Our work has entailed the specification and elaboration of a number of premises which are seen as being basic to any attempt at model building and which stand in opposition to many of the questionable psychological and sociological assumptions underlying game theory as well as most theories of decision-making. Firstly, it is taken as axiomatic that human actions lead to complex interaction effects and to unintended consequences as a result of the complex interrelatedness or structure of most action situations, particularly social situations. At the same time, human action involves multiple objective evaluation and decision-making, since humans act in settings where effective action or survival itself requires controlling or coping with multiple features or dimensions of the environment. As a result of this property, evaluation and decision processes often manifest properties of conflict and inconsistency and related characteristics such as ambivalence, intransitivity, and indecidability. Secondly, human decision and action processes entail problem-solving and creative activities and manifest a pattern of learning and development as theory (guiding action) interacts with practice.
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© 1978 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
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Burns, T.R., Meeker, D. (1978). Conflict and Structure in Multi-Level Multiple Objective Decision-Making Systems. In: Hooker, C.A., Leach, J.J., >McClennen, E.F. (eds) Foundations and Applications of Decision Theory. The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, vol 13a. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9789-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9789-9_3
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