Exclusion: For any end, e, if an agent cares about e, then (whether or not the agent intends to bring about or promote or sustain e) the agent is disposed to exclude courses of action that she believes to be incompatible with e from the range of courses of action that she will entertain as options in practical deliberation.
In what follows, I will use the phrase "the deliberative boundary established by an agent's concern with e" to refer to that deliberative boundary manifested in the disposition that Exclusion describes: the disposition to exclude precisely those courses of action which the agent believes to be incompatible with e from the range of courses of action which she will entertain as options in practical deliberation.
The truth of Exclusion is easily obscured, for the following reason: often, when an agent cares about some end, her concern will be manifested in intentions with respect to that end, and these intentions will themselves give rise to deliberative boundaries, evident in corresponding dispositions to exclude courses of action which lie beyond these boundaries.
Suppose, to revert to the example, that I had no disposition, however defeasible, to exclude from my deliberation courses of action which aided in the destruction of Tibetan culture.
In decisions in the goal-directed pattern deciders use the criterion of goal-attainment to select courses of action, and in the purely goal-directed decision it's the only criterion they use.
It's not necessary that any predicted consequences exactly match the goal but only that they come closer than the consequences of other courses of action studied.
In the purely goal-directed decision the goal must be unambiguous and fixed before courses of action are presented to the decider.
In contrast, decision makers can evaluate courses of action that are generated through recognition of the situation.
For all courses of action classified as selecting or comparing options, the coders identified the type of analytical strategies invoked by the decision makers.
We expected that the majority of the courses of action linked to decision points would be directed at resolving whatever difficulty had arisen, but this was not the case.
* Identify Key Facts and Assumptions/Develop
Courses of ActionThis avoids wasting time creating courses of action that their agencies' available assets cannot support.
Once administrators have formulated some courses of action, they should evaluate the effects that these approaches will have on their organizations.
By considering all of the factors affecting the situation, determining and analyzing feasible sequences of action, and reviewing the estimates of support provided by supervisors and commodity managers, administrators can decide on the best courses of action to take to accomplish their stated objectives.
Additionally, with two exceptions, the
courses of action in the poll generated lower ratings as effective means of increasing shareholder value.