Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

The Contribution of Critical Realism as an Underpinning Philosophy for OR/MS and Systems

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
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)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.