Introduction to Multi-Criteria Decision Making

Abstract

The analysis of the way people make decisions (prescriptive theories) or the way people ought to make decisions (normative theories) is perhaps as old as the recorded history of mankind. Of course, not all these analyses were characterized by the rigorous scientific approaches we see in the literature today. Therefore, it is not surprising that the literature in decision making is humongous and continuously increasing. At the same time, however, the development of the perfect decision making method for rational real life decision making still remains an elusive goal. This contradiction between the extensiveness of the study on this subject and the elusiveness of the final goal of the real life applicability of the findings, constitutes in a way the ultimate decision making paradox.