Instrumental Reasoning and Systems Methodology

This book has been written primarily for the applied and social scientist and student who longs for an integrated picture of the foundations on which his research must ultimately rest; but hopefully the book may also serve philosophers interested in applied disciplines and in systems methodology. If integration was the major motto, the need for a method ology, appropriate to the teleological peculiarities of all applied sciences, was the main impetus behind the conception of the present work. This need I felt a long time ago in my own area of analytical and empirical research in accounting theory and management science; later I had the opportunity to teach, for almost a decade, graduate seminars in Methodology which offered particular insight into the methodological needs of students of such applied disciplines as business administration, education, engineering, infor matics, etc. Out of this effort grew the present book which among other things tries, on one side, to illuminate the difference and relationship between methods of cognition and methods of decision and on the other, to sketch a framework suitable for depicting means-end relationships in a holistic setting. I believe that a systems methodology which incorporates recent endeavours of deontic logic, decision theory, information economics and related areas would be eminently suited to break the ground for such a future framework. Yet systems theory has two major shortcomings which might prevent it from evolving into the desired methodology of applied science.

Contenu
1 Introduction.- 1.1 Do Scientists Need Epistemology?.- 1.2 Towards a Philosophy of Applied Science.- 1.3 Management Science and the Philosophy of Applied Science.- 1.4 Conclusion.- 2 Systems Analysis as a Tool of Philosophical Investigation.- 2.1 In Need of an Expanded Analytical Superstructure.- 2.2 The Essence of the Systems Approach.- 2.21 Alternative and Complementary Attempts.- 2.22 General Characteristics.- 2.23 The System Boundaries.- 2.3 Incorporating and Externalizing Value Judgements.- 2.4 The Method of Neutralizing Systems.- 2.5 Management Science as a System: Normative or Positive?.- 2.6 Reduction of Value Judgements.- 2.7 Institutionalized Facts as Values.- 2.8 Institutions as Systems.- 3 Philosophy and Evolution of Logic from a Systems Point of View.- 3.1 Some Ontological Considerations.- 3.2 On the Nature of Logic.- 3.21 Relation to the Mind-Body Problem.- 3.22 Analytical and Normative Aspects of Logic.- 3.23 The Origin of Formal Logic.- 3.24 The Hierarchy of Semantics and Logic.- 3.25 Naming and Meaning.- 3.3 Historical Development of Modern Logic.- 3.31 The Advent of Boolean Algebra.- 3.32 Mathematicians Contributions to Logic.- 3.33 The Logistic Thesis of Mathematics.- 3.34 Principia Mathematica.- 3.35 Paradoxes and the Axiom of Choice.- 3.36 Consistency and Gödel s roof.- 3.4 Some Highlights in the Evolution of Semantics.- 3.41 From Ancient Times to the Twentieth Century.- 3.42 Carnap s and Tarski s Major Contributions.- 3.43 Wittgenstein s Two Philosophies.- 3.44 Recent Developments.- 4 Modern Deductive Logic.- 4.1 Sentence Logic or the Theory of Truth Functions.- 4.11 Sentence Connectives.- 4.12 Conditional Form versus Argument Form.- 4.13 Decidability and Formalization.- 4.14 Formalization of Sentence Logic: Sentence Calculi.- 4.2 Predicate Logic.- 4.21 Quantification.- 4.22 Valid Formulas.- 4.23 Russell s Theory of Description and Recent Reactions.- 4.3 Multivalued and Modal Logic.- 4.31 Lukasiewicz any Valued Logic.- 4.32 Modal Logic.- 4.4 Imperative Arguments and Deontic Modalities.- 4.41 Imperative Inferences.- 4.42 Arguments with Mixed Premises.- 4.43 Deontic Inferences.- 5 The Controversy Around Inductive Logic.- 5.1 Essence and Early Evolution of Induction.- 5.2 Modern Views on Induction.- 5.21 Hume and the Sceptics.- 5.22 The Hypothetico-Deductive Approach and Popper s Falsificationism.- 5.23 Von Wright and Mill s Methods of Induction.- 5.24 Carnap and Theories of Confirmation.- 5.25 Von Mises, Reichenbach and others: the Frequentists Approach to Induction.- 5.26 Russell and the Fostulational Approach.- 5.27 Uniformity of the Universe and Goodman s Paradox.- 5.3 Probability and Its Interpretation.- 5.31 Relative Frequency.- 5.32 Degree of Confirmation.- 5.33 Subjective Probability.- 5.4 Conclusion.- 6 Decision Theory and the Economists Methodological Endeavors.- 6.1 An Appraisal of Carnap s Inductive Logic.- 6.2 Formal Decision Theory and Its Evolution.- 6.21 Early Beginnings and the Probabilistic Utility Notion.- 6.22 The Statisticians Contributions.- 6.23 Principles of Rational Choice.- 6.24 Further Contributions by Philosophers and Economists.- 6.3 Information Economics as an Extension of Decision Theory.- 6.4 Episterno-Economics.- 6.41 On the Attitude of the Epistemologists.- 6.42 On the Attitude of Economists.- 6.43 What is the Essence of Epistemo-Economics?.- 6.44 Epistemo-Economics as an Extension of the Philosophy of Science.- 6.45 Information as Raw Material of Knowledge.- 6.5 Other Methodological Explorations by Economists.- 6.51 Positive versus Normative Economics.- 6.52 The Modem Dispute on Methodology.- 6.53 Stochastic and Holistic Aspects of Economics.- 7 Philosophy of Science and the Systems Approach.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Epistemology: The Received View.- 7.21 The Principles of Uncritical Empiricism.- 7.22 Refinements and Ultimate Version of Uncritical Empiricism.- 7.3 Reaction and Alternatives.- 7.31 The Normativistic Outlook.- 7.32 The Sneed-Stegmüller Synthesis.- 7.4 The