The Complexity of Decision-Making and Judgement in Action
The Athenians, through a democratic culture, embraced collective decision-making. Despite the dizzying amount of data at our fingertips today--and an increasing reliance on analytics to make most of our decisions, the Athenians relied on and exercised rational decision-making, which in turn created a collective judgment call.
The Athenian Assembly (500 members from 10 Greek cities), had a complex decision to make, stay within our cities and fight, or uproot the citizens and fight the Persians at sea. The decision to evacuate the cities was not considered lightly, they would leave behind their homes and land, and their ancestral and religious traditions.
As days passed, Athenians debated over the meaning of words provided by the oracle of Delphi (religious sanctuary of Apollo) and gathered additional authoritative information from news across the country. After days of contemplating, listening, and debating, the decision to face the enemy by sea was based upon a previous decision some years earlier.
A few years earlier, the city had come into a fortune due to silver being found in a local mine. Two options were placed on the table: 1) spread the wealth amongst the citizens, or 2) build a fleet of naval ships to defend Athens. Again, currently, the vote was unanimous – build the ships. The decision to build the ships would allow for judgments to be placed in an open forum when deciding to fight on land or at sea.
The judgments would be heard and considered, but the end collective decision would have the Athenians using their most valuable asset, a wooden wall of naval ships, and the Athenian men standing ready to derail the progression of the Persians. The Greeks would lose the battle due to a judgment call made by another city-state (Samos) to defect from their position, along with their ships. Nonetheless, the Greeks would find their victory at the Battle of Salamis.
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