Decision Theory has considerably developed in the late 1970's and the
1980's. The evolution has been so fast and far-r2aching that it has
become increasingly difficult to keep track of the new state of the art.
After a decade of new contributions, there was a need for an overview'
of the field. This book is intended to fill the gap. The reader will
find here thirty nine selected papers which were given at FUR-III, the
third international confe- rence on the Foundations and applications of
Utility, Risk and decision theories, held in Aix-en-Provence in June
1986. An introductory chapter will provide an overview of the main
questions raised on the subject since the 17th Century and more
particularly so in the last thirty years, as well as some elementary
information on the experimental and theoretical results obtained. It is
thus hoped that any reader with some basic background in either
Economics, Hanagement or Operations Research will be able to read
profitably the thirty-nine other chapters. Psychologists, Sociologists,
Social Philosophers and other specialists of the social sciences will
also read this book with interest, as will high-level practitioners of
decision making and advanced students in one of the abovementioned
fields. An expository survey of this volume will be found at the end of
the introductory chapter, so that any of the seven parts of the book can
be put by the reader in due perspective.
