ABSTRACT
Karl Deutsch and Thomas Kuhn have observed that the birth and rebirth process of any discipline cycles through at least four distinct layers or stages. As a reaction to a state of confusion and disarray, the first stage is a period of naming and list-making. Second comes the taxonomic or classification phase, which attempts to answer questions about the relationship between these fundamental entities, their order and priority. In the third phase, models, simulations, and conceptual constructs are proposed and tested. The final phase is one in which universal paradigms are constructed or are modified to account for anomalies in the evolving discipline. In fact, the three papers presented in the session on Decision Models illustrate many of these points. One proposes a new taxonomy, the second is a method for establishing physical relationships, and the third is a descriptive model of activities.
