Chapter 1

1. The comments here about knowledge do not address full-range philosophical issues of what knowledge is. For an extensive description of, and argument for, the type of inquiry and knowledge with which we substantially agree, see Paul Kurtz, The New Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable Knowledge, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, New York, 1992.

2. For some situations, desired could be a misleading modifier of results . Take hurricanes, for example. Humans cannot take action to control or eliminate them (the ultimate desired result), but with improved hurricane-forecasting techniques, humans can take action to avoid the loss of lives and reduce property damage. Both highly desired results.

3. Thomas Lys and Linda Vincent, An analysis of Value Destruction in AT&T's Acquisition of NCR, Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 39, 1995, 353 378.

4. See Hadley Cantril, Adelbert Ames, Jr., Albert H. Hastorf, and William H. Ittelson, Psychology and Scientific Research, Part I, The Nature of Scientific Inquiry, Science, November 4, 1949, Vol. 110, for an illuminating discussion on improving the knowledge base. The following excerpt (p. 462) is consistent with the Knowledge and Action System diagram of Figure 1.1.

   What man brings to any concrete event is, then, an accumulation of assumptions, of awarenesses, and of knowledge concerning the relatively determined aspects of his environment as derived from his past experiences. But since the environment through which man carries out his life transactions is constantly changing, any person is constantly running into hitches and trying to do away with them. The assumptive world a...