The Theory of Cognitive Orientation: Widening the Scope of Behavior Prediction

Abstract

This chapter discusses the theory of cognitive orientation. The chapter reviews that most people would like to know how other persons will behave, and many people are in need of this knowledge to fulfill their tasks as planners in one or another domain of life. On the other hand, the deterministic notion, so frequently associated with behavior prediction, is an anathema to the majority of people living in what is presently called the western world. They cherish the idea of free will and, are afraid that an instrument enabling behavior prediction could be misused for controlling and manipulating their lives and, thus, curtailing their individual freedom. Nevertheless, even these behavior predictions would not be perfect, partly because one out of the myriads of involved meaning values or beliefs could pop up in the last instant and modify the predicted constellation, but mainly because of the same hurdle that has ultimately shattered the traditional determinism of classical physics, that is, the unavoidable interference of the observing system with the function of the system to be observed.