Much of the below reminds me of Herbert Simon's notion of "satisficing rationality." Cogent enough in itself - and applauded unreflectively by school principals across N. America - but when wedded to Ayer's emotivist thesis on moral judgement and Aristotle's crippled understanding of deliberation as concerned strictly with means and not ends, it yields a woefully inadequate account of capacities and competences of rational deliberation by autonomous agents. Remember: your kids' education is at the mercy of public school teachers' understanding of the nature and conditions of autonomous rationality. Walter O. MUN Quoting John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>: > On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 2:13 AM, Andreas Ramos <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > >>> > > Drinking coffee in a relaxed situation could be managed by the > > sub-conscious (or pre-concious?) mind. > > > > On the other hand, some of the research I mentioned focuses specifically on > highly time-pressured decisions made by people like firemen or tank > commanders confronted with what are literally life-and-death situations. > > Recognition-primed decision making (Gary Klein) describes the process as > one that begins with a pattern recognition process in which the individual > compares incoming information with a set of possible models and acts on the > first to pop off the stack which seems to offer a reasonable fit with what > is going on (using satisficing heuristics instead of trying to calculate the > best possible model). Then, while action based on the model begins, another > part of the brain continues to monitor incoming information looking for > discrepancies that indicate a wrong model choice. When enough contradictory > information piles up, this triggers a new pattern recognition step; the > process continues until the situation is resolved. The critical factor here > is the range and richness of the models invoked by the pattern recognition > step. The more and richer the models the more likely it is that the one on > which action is based does, in fact, fit the situation well and yield the > desired result. > > > John > > -- > John McCreery > The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN > Tel. +81-45-314-9324 > http://www.wordworks.jp/ > ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html