A foundational concept of science appropriate for validation in operational research

The purpose of this paper is to set forth, on the basis of a selected portion of the literature, an outline of a concept of science that can serve as an appropriate foundation for considering the problems of validation. To this end, it considers desiderata appropriate for such a concept, craft aspects of scientific inquiry, objects of scientific work, an overview of scientific processes, social aspects of scientific work, and the relations of these subjects to Operational Research. Then the paper considers what validation means in this structure, both for science generally and for Operational Research in particular. The conclusion points to the essential contribution that validation makes to the maturity of a science, and hence the need for Operational Research OR workers to study it more thoroughly and systematically than they have in the past.