“Be it Resolved that Structured Debate Not Consensus Ought to form the Epistemic Cornerstone of OR/MS”: A Reaction to Ackoff's Note on Systems Science

As is so often the case, Russell Ackoff has put before us a most challenging and provocative series of proposals which in my opinion have not received the proper responses due them. I am referring of course to Ackoff’s recent suggestion that if the election of a TIMS president is to be anything more than a contest of personalities then candidates for the presidency ought to run on a substantial issue, a platform [Ackoff, Russell L. 1972. Open letter to TIMS members. Interfaces2 (4, August) 42]. I am also referring to his suggestion “that TIMS [Transform] itself into The Institute of Systems Sciences” [Ackoff, Russell L. 1972. Open letter to TIMS members. Interfaces2 (4, August) 43]. While these two suggestions are not identical with one another and do not necessarily imply one another, they are not necessarily completely independent of one another either. An attitude toward the one will be indicative and expressive of an attitude toward the other, particularly given the dramatic way in which Ackoff has put the two. Granting that this is the case, it is nevertheless my intention to confine myself more to the former suggestion than to the latter. Indeed, I think the fate of the former suggestion is crucial to the fate of the latter.