ABSTRACT
In this chapter I take a close look at the Principle of Optimality . I elaborate on the questions that were merely touched on in Chapter 4, namely the principle’s meaning and validity and its place and role in dynamic programming. I deferred discussion on these issues to this part of the book because it is my view that only against the background of a complete account of the derivation of the functional equation of dynamic programming can one hope to do full justice to these matters.
