Supporting the harvard model of principled negotiation with superexpertise

Abstract

An expert epistemology is a theory about knowledge in the expertise and includes knowledge representation, semantics, specifications, heuristics, reasoning, etc. Superexpert systems employ computer capabilities to extend ordinary human abilities, and are derived from expert epistemologies. A superexpert system, Negotiation Game or NeGame (NeG), is designed to support the Harvard Principled Negotiation model; it is illustrated by a Civilisation application which reframes the Israel-Palestine conflict as the task of negotiating a mutually acceptable civilisation. The negotiation epistemology of NeG evolved from the adversarial epistemology of eGanges (eG); both handle tasks in a user-friendly and transparent way. NeG manages hierarchical complexity of the conflict issues and differences in their subjective values, advises on cumulative scoring of Wins and Losses, and, through mathematical techniques, maximises Win-Win options. Adversarial epistemology requires four-valued logic, whereas negotiation epistemology requires six-valued logic; they share a common knowledge hierarchy, called a River. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.