Under the title 'Information, Inference and Decision' this volume in the Theory and Decision Library presents some papers on issues from the borderland of statistical inference philosophy and epistemology, written by statisticians and decision theorists who belonged or are allied to the former Saarbriicken school of statistical decision theory. In the first part I make an attempt to outline an objective theory of inductive behaviour, on the basis of R. A. Fisher's statistical inference philosophy, on the one hand, and R. Carnap's inductive logic, on the other. A special problem arising in the...

Game theory could be formally defined as a theory of rational decision in conflict situations. Models of such situations, as they are conceived in game theory, involve (1) a set of decision makers, called players; (2) a set of strategies available to each player; (3) a set of outcomes, each of which is a result of particular choices of strategies made by the players on a given play of the game; and (4) a set of payoffs accorded to each player in each of the possible outcomes. It is assumed that each player is 'individually rational', in the sense that his preference ordering of the outcomes...

Ethics, as one of the most respectable disciplines of philosophy, has undergone a drastic and revolutionary change in recent time. There are three main trends of this development. The first trend can be described as a tendency towards a rigorous formal and analytical language. This means simply that ethics has created beside its own formalized set theoretical language a variety of new formalized, logical and mathemati cal methods and concepts. Thus ethics has become a formalized meta or epidiscipline which is going to replace the traditional concepts, principles and ethical methods in the...

When John Harsanyi came to Stanford University as a candidate for the Ph.D., I asked him why he was bothering, since it was most un likely that he had anything to learn from us. He was already a known scho lar; in addition to some papers in economics, the first two papers in this vol ume had already been published and had dazzled me by their originality and their combination of philosophical insight and technical competence. However, I am very glad I did not discourage him; whether he learned any thing worthwhile I don't know, but we all learned much from him on the foundations of the theory...

In this essay I am concerned with the problem of conceptual change. There are, needless to say, many ways to approach the issue. But, as I see it, the problem reduces to showing how present and future systems of thought are the rational extensions of prior ones. This goal may not be attainable. Kuhn, for example, suggests that change is mainly a function of socio-economic pressures (taken broadly). But there are some who believe that a case can be made for the rationality of change, especially in science. Wilfrid Sellars is one of those. While Sellars has developed a full account of the...

THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE: THE POLISH ROAD FROM SOCIALISM ON 1. The history of all hitherto existing societies is a history of class struggle - not only that between the exploited and the exploiters, but also that between the ruled and the rulers. And in modern times, there is in some societies a struggle between those who are exploited and oppressed at the same time and those who at the same time exploit and oppress. 2. The struggle between the owners and the direct producers results from the fact that the former exploit the latter, that is, they take from their labour more than they give...

Main Economic Policy Areas of the EC: After 1992 is a completely rewritten version of past editions. It examines successes and problems associated with the EC's main economic policy areas and makes proposals for the future. For the first time, a chapter on the very important policy area of transport is included. This volume is an indispensable course book and handbook for all individuals interested in the European Community's main policy areas at the beginning of the coming into effect of the Single European Market.

This collection of essays is written in honour of Maurice Allais. It focuses on considering his economic theories. Chapters include a theory of spatial general equilibrium in a fuzzy economy and some possible uses of household assets in the national economy with reference to American households.