Word: conceptive
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Morgenstern noted that classical economics -and many of its "neoclassical" adherents-has exhibited a dismal track record in predicting and interpreting phenomena. After viewing numerous examples of multivariable decision making in game situations (poker was a Morgenstern favorite), he used mathematics, logic and the relatively simple economic-behavioral concept of "utility maximization" to devise a general theoretical framework which often demonstrated remarkable predictive power. He also applied his theory to such diverse areas as nuclear arms negotiations, computer science and complex business decisions for the government and private industry...
...Jaws? Would it have occurred to him to give Ahab's sense of injury and obsession with revenge to the whale, to put the moral and psychological shoe on the other flipper? And if he had had the temerity to shop so weird a concept around town, would some producer have had the common sense to tell him, "Back to the custom house, Herman...
What is more, sociobiology may have appeared at the right cultural moment. The 1970s have brought with them growing impatience and disillusionment over failed educational and environmental experiments designed to alter social behavior. The concept of social theorists that man is infinitely malleable and perfectible has fallen into disfavor. At such a time the emergence of a doctrine preaching that man is caught in history, able to exercise free will only within the limits set by his genes, may do very well indeed...
...Right. It was, of course, a debate no one could win, meant to be more illuminating than persuasive. An audience of 200, largely summer seminarians and institute fellows, had a chance to offer their views. One black charged that "this is a discussion of the concept of nothing"; real democracy, he argued, did not exist anywhere. Some of the auditors criticized all three philosophers for being cautious and too far to the right; others asked whether civil disobedience should be taught in schools (answer: a qualified "sometimes" from Adler...
...most outspoken critic was Food and Drug Administration Chief Donald Kennedy. Said he: "I do not believe that anyone has the right to debase the concept of freedom by swindling those who are desperate for their lives." Other federal officials testified that Bradford alone had pocketed $675,000 in profits from $1.4 million in Laetrile sales over 2½ years...