A survey on non conventional Preference Modeling

In the paper a survey on non conventional preference modeling is presented. Some philo-sophical discussion on the logic and foundations of human preferences is presented as the firstattempt to provide an axiomatization of the subject. The use of preference models in decisionaid however introduces such parameters to put serious questions to the possibility to build acomplete normative axiomatization of this discipline. The conventional preference models arediscussed both from a mathematical and the decision aid point of view underlining the limita-tions and impossibilities of this approach towards complex and particular problem situations.The extensions of the conventional theory while enhance its potentialities fail however to givea satisfactory answer to some problems as uncertainty, ambiguity and imprecision of preferencemodels mainly when multidimensional preferences have to be considered (collective and/or mul-ticriteria preferences). Two non conventional approaches are presented, fuzzy preference modelsand the concept of outranking relation. In the first case an account of the theoretical foundationsof valued preference relations is presented and some problems with axiomatization are discussed.In the second case, while the operational potentialities of the approach are underlined, the lackof a strong theoretical foundation is emphasized. A new four-valued logic is considered as a toolenabling to give such a theoretical support. The future research on the subject concludes thepaper.