C. West Churchman

An Approximate Measure of Value

Selection of an optimum decision depends on two types of measures: (1) the efficiency of a course of action for an outcome; (2) the importance or weight of the outcomes. That course of action that maximizes the expected total weighted efficiency (effectiveness) is optimum. A method for estimating importance on a scale of value is provided. It is based on actual or verbal choices of decision-makers. The method can be applied to any number of objectives or outcomes, and to any number of decision-makers. Reliability of the results can be measured. Operations Research , ISSN 0030-364X, was published as Journal of the Operations Research Society of America from 1952 to 1955 under ISSN 0096-3984.

Thought and Wisdom

Publisher Summary Wisdom is thought combined with a concern for ethics. This is a highly intellectual idea about wisdom, and may emanate from thought itself. The science of Leibniz, Spinoza, Hume, and Kant of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was far wiser than the so-called science of the 20th century. Apparently, basing legitimacy on economic costs seemed to most of the committee members a calmer, more thoughtful approach than simply getting angry at the carelessness of people who got themselves and others killed by their failure to wear safety belts. All planning begins with a problem; however, it should not be confined to the problem statement. Also, the beginning should not be a clear problem formulation, but rather should be an utterance of moral outrage. John Dewey once said that problems arise from felt needs; however, that is much too mild a statement. One very sad aspect of a great deal of planning research is that the roots of the Request-for-Proposals are cut off at the very start; no wonder the plant withers and dies as proposals, interim, and final reports are written.

The Role of Weltanschauung in Problem Solving and Inquiry

There is a story to the effect that the students of a famous mathematician presented him with the sequence 32, 38, 44, 48, 56, 60 and asked for the next member. It was also stipulated that the properties of the sequence were very well known to the professor and that the generating principle was quite simple. The mathematician, failing to find anything but a fairly complicated polynomial fit, gave up. The answer was “Meadowlark,” this being the next stop on the city’s subway -- elevated after 60th Street. The problem was “fair,” because the professor rode this conveyance daily and hence “knew” very well the principle of the sequence.

The management of science and the mismanagement of the world

The truth of a scientific proposition, finding, or an abstract ethical principle is not a static property inherent in it. Truth happens as the result of the management of human affairs. It becomes true, is discovered and made true by actions. Its verity is in fact a series of actions, a process: the process of its implementation. Its validity is gained through what may generally be called “the management of truth: (C. West Churchman and Ian I. Mitroff).

The theory of the firm: An epistemological analysis

Is the theory of the firm equipped to answer questions about contemporary society? By a systemic examination of the nature of laws and facts assumed in the theory of the firm, we find that while the theory of the firm has found its Descartes and its Hume, it is not yet clear whether it has found its Kant. We speculate that a pragmatism-inspired theory of the firm, which incorporates the science of ethical management, is needed for the theory to become relevant for contemporary society.

Real time systems and public information

It is perhaps obvious that computer technology will open up a new era in public information in the coming decade. What is not so obvious at all is the proper design of the future information systems. Nor do I sense any simple answers.

Measurement: A Systems Approach

It has become popular in philosophical literature to refer to a certain formulation of the problem of induction as ‘Hume’s problem’, with the inevitable questioning whether Hume actually had such a problem as the formulator proposes. I should characterize the central theme of TEI as a concern with ‘Kant’s problem’, with the inevitable admission that Kant himself never faced the problem as I formulated it. ‘Kant’s problem’ is stated exactly in the middle of the text: ... we now seem forced to the following paradoxical conclusions: 1. We must agree with Kant that the construction of an intelligible world out of the immediacies of sensation demands a certain a priori equipment, i.e., demands the assumption of certain principles not derivable from the elementary facts of experience. 2. But we must disagree with Kant that a priori laws are known intuitively, and that their verification is independent of observation.

Symposium Summary the Safety Profession’s Image of Humanity

In the 1780’s, Immanuel Kant was struggling to understand the basic principle underlying morality. First he stated it as a “categorical” imperative, meaning that it holds unconditionally: “you ought to do X,” and no if’s, and and’s, or but’s. The X you ought to do is to act so that you can will the principle of your action to hold universally, i. e., for everyone in every situation. In order to clarify the meaning of this categorical imperative, Kant gave us an alternative version: “so act as to treat humanity, either in yourself or in another, never as means only but as an end withal.”

On Comparison and administration: A Philosophical Discourse

This philosophical paper attempts to combine four central themes that appear to emerge in the activities of the Comparative Administration Group (CAG); the combination seems to lead to a paradox, which on the whole I take to be a &dquo;good thing.&dquo; The four themes are ( 1 ) comparison which may be understood as an application of (2) traditional measurement, and (3) administration which can be understood in terms of (4) an expectation that the affairs of