Reconsidering the Philosophical Basis of OR/MS

Jack R. Meredith ()
Additional contact information
Jack R. Meredith: Babcock Graduate School of Management, Wake Forest University, P.O. Box 7659, Winston-Salem, NC, 27109-7659

Operations Research, 2001, vol. 49, issue 3, 325-333

Abstract: Many in Operations Research/Management Science (OR/MS) have long predicted a major contraction in the field. Given the recent trends in OR/MS hiring, this contraction may have finally arrived, both in academia, as well as in industry. This study maintains that part of this contraction is because we drifted from the field's broad, real-world roots due to a limited philosophical foundation of the field, our realist view of reality. If our commonly held realist philosophy has, in the ironic fashion described herein, given rise to the “academic drift” in the field, the recognition of a relativist philosophy that emphasizes understanding over problem solving could help return the field to its roots.

Keywords: Philosophy of modeling: understanding vs. problem solving; Professional OR/MS philosophy: ontological basis of OR/MS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.49.3.325.11213 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:oropre:v:49:y:2001:i:3:p:325-333

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Operations Research from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().