Mingers, John (2000) The Contribution of Critical Realism as an Underpinning Philosophy for OR/MS and Systems. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 51 (11). pp. 1256-1270. ISSN 0160-5682. (doi:10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601033) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:3893)
The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. | |
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601033 |
Abstract
Many issues are under debate as to the philosophical nature of OR/MS: is it science or technology? Is it natural or social science? Can it be realist as well as being interpretivist? There are also many debates within the philosophy of science itself. This paper proposes that a particular account of the philosophy of science, known as 'critical realism', is especially suitable as an underpinning of OR/MS. The structure of the argument of this paper is to outline the main positions within the philosophy of science and highlight their problems, especially from the point of view of OR/MS; then to introduce critical realism and to show how it addresses these problems and how it is particularly appropriate for OR/MS; and finally to illustrate this by considering examples of various practical OR methods.
Item Type: | Article |
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DOI/Identification number: | 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601033 |
Subjects: |
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD29 Operational Research - Applications |
Divisions: | Divisions > Kent Business School - Division > Department of Analytics, Operations and Systems |
Depositing User: | John Mingers |
Date Deposited: | 26 May 2009 21:30 UTC |
Last Modified: | 16 Nov 2021 09:42 UTC |
Resource URI: | https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/3893 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes) |
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