C. West Churchman

Charles West Churchman (born August 29, 1913 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, died March 21, 2004 Bolinas, California) was an American philosopher in the field of management science, operations research and systems theory. He is internationally known for his pioneering work in operations research and system analysis.

Biography

Churchman studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where he Bachelor, Master and Doctorate in Philosophy in 1935-38. After completing his doctorate in philosophy, Dr. Churchman started his professional career at University of Pennsylvania as a philosophy instructor from 1937 to 1942. He returned to his alma mater after World War II as an assistant professor in philosophy. During 1951-1957, he was professor of engineering and operations research at Case Western Reserve. In 1957, Dr. Churchman joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley and remained there until his retirement. Furthermore he was the first editor-in-chief of Management Science in 1954.

In 1989 he was president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences .

Work

Churchman authored 12 books:

• (1940) Elements of Logic and Formal Science, J.B. Lippincott Co., New York.
• (1940) Euclid Vindicated of Every Blemish, Translator, Saccheri's
• (1948) Theory of Experimental Inference, Macmillan , New York.
• (1950) Methods of Inquiry: Introduction to Philosophy and Scientific Method, Educational Publications, St. Louis, Missouri.
• (1957) Introduction to Operations Research, (with Russell L. Ackoff, E.L. Arnoff et al.) J. Wiley and Sons , New York.
• (1960) Prediction and Optimal Decision, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
• (1968)Challenge to Reason, McGraw-Hill, New York
• (1968) The Systems Approach, Delacorte Press , New York.
• (1971) The Design of Inquiring Systems, Basic Concepts of Systems and Organizations, Basic Books, New York.
• (1979) The Systems Approach and Its Enemies, Basic Books, New York.
• (1982) Thought and Wisdom; The Gaither Lectures, Intersystems Publications, Seaside, California.
• (1975) Thinking for Decisions: Deductive Quantitative Methods, Science Research Associates, Chicago, Illinois

External links

• http://nature.berkeley.edu/~schultz/people/churchman_cv.html
• http://projects.isss.org/Main/CWestChurchman