Systems analysis of rational actions and the delegation problems
Ładislav Tondl · Systems Research · 1989
Abstract The concept of rational action has usually been analyzed and explained in some theories stressing certain partial aspects of rational action, e.g. in sociological theories, in the domain of logic of action, etc. The presented paper emphasizes the role of systems approach distinguishing a specification of goals, basic functions of action, input prerequisites and achieved or achievable outputs. For any rational action there is typical what we can denote as ‘knowledge‐ladenness’ and ‘value‐laden‐ness’. The knowledge prerequisites include various domains of knowledge, especially ‘know‐what’, ‘know‐how’ and ‘know‐why’. The systems approach is useful in connection with automation problems and ‘delegation’ problems (i.e. processes of transmitting some components of human actions to computerized systems. Solving the delegation problems we have to evaluate not only the final results but also all main components of rational action.