Read more
noting in this connection that KotarbiIiski's assumptions were proved true many years later, and that increasingly representatives of various scientific disciplines have come to observe paradigms of efficiency which had often tended to be ignored; empirical studies involving a large concentration of personnel, financial resources and equipment are now guided by the principles of efficiency and economy. In his second paper Kotarbiriski referred to Alfred Espinas, the French philosopher and sociologist, and to other authors who repre sented the praxiological viewpoint, together with that of the general systems approach. KotarbiIiski was the first to accept a theory more general than praxiology, which he termed the theory of complexes. He considered one of its representatives to be A. Bogdanov (1873-1928), the Marxist theorist and author of Tectology. A General Theory of Organization (first written in Russian, published in the German language version as Allgemeine Organizationslehre in the 1920's, and recently translated into English in Canada). KotarbiIiski also realized that he was not the only praxiologist, that even the name of the dis cipline had been used earlier by various authors not aware of the work of others.
List of contents
The Goal of an Act and the Task of the Agent.- On the Essence and Goals of General Methodology (Praxiology).- An Outline of the Prehistory of Praxiology.- An Analysis of the Concept of Goal.- Comments on the Concept of Efficiency.- The Value of Perfect Information.- A Praxiological Theory of Evaluations.- Praxiosemiotics: the Theory of Optimum Message in the Service of Other Disciplines and Practical Activities.- A Formal Theory of Actions: Syntax and Semantics of Behaviour.- Praxiological Models - Praxiological Modelling of Systems of Action.- Planning and Implementation. An Elementary Primer of the Cybernetics of Planning.- Praxiology and the Theory of Programming.- Making Use of Science in Actions (A Study in Methodology and Praxiology).- Practical Problems and Practical Directives.- A Praxiological Theory of Design.- Some Problems of the General Theory of Struggle.- Struggle in a Dense Social Environment.- The Theory of Organization and Management.- The Importance of Praxiology for Political Economy.- Praxiology and Technology.- About the Contributors.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.
