Masanao Toda (1924-2006), Creative Inspirator of Decision Research and Beyond

Abstract

On September 5^th, 2006, Japanese physicist-psychologist-philosopher Masanao Toda died in Nagoya at the age of 82. Decision researchers and others will remember him as a witty, sharp and independent thinker, whose interests and expertise ranged from theoretical physics and mathematics to cognitive psychology (rather: cognitive science) and social philosophy. Toda's research contributions were focused on subjective probability, dynamic decision-making, the decision-making role of emotions, and a grand theory of social interaction. Within the European research conference on Subjective Probability, Utility and Decision Making (biennial ‘SPUDM’) his work on subjective probability was already mentioned at the very first meeting in Hamburg (see Wendt, 1969; Vlek, 1999). He himself participated in SPUDM conferences in Darmstadt (1975), Warszawa (1977), Göteborg (1979) and Groningen (1983). The later part of his career was largely devoted to his “Urge theory of emotions” which still awaits official publication in English. Toda's decease cannot go without recalling his international orientation, his main ideas about human cognition and decision-making and the way he exposed them.