Cognitive Multiple Criteria Decision Making and the Legacy of the Analytic Hierarchy Process

This paper examines the concept, historical evolution and the different schools of thought regarding an aspect of one of the most productive and widely disseminated Operations Research disciplines of our time: Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). It analyses the development of the scientific method and new tendencies that have emerged in the context of the Knowledge Society. The work also considers future challenges in the field of MCDM, particularly in the context of one of the most popular approaches: the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Three fundamental problems envisioned for this school of thought by its creator need to be addressed as future challenges in the MCDM field. This article is dedicated to the memory of Professor Thomas L. Saaty, the originator of AHP and one of the most brilliant and ingenious mathematicians of the last 60 years; he passed away in August 2017 at the age of 91.