A Theory of Uncertainty: Perspectives in Philosophy, Social Sciences, and Risk Research

Using sources from classical to modern that broach the phenomenon of uncertainty and its relation to risk, this book creates a novel approach to the recognized but theoretically often unattended issue of uncertainty.

Andreas Klinke develops a new, general theory of uncertainty that provides a taxonomy of categories which are deduced from a critical inventory in philosophy, social and natural sciences, and risk research. Comprising six parts, the philosophical grounding of uncertainty sets the stage for the following philosophical and social scientific accounts and explanation of four distinctive guises of uncertainty that form a taxonomic notion and rationale: ontological, epistemological, linguistic-communicative, and teleological uncertainty. The theoretical-conceptual rumination provides a complex, differentiated view of the anatomy of uncertainty and an understanding that can be used in further theoretical and empirical research, as well as socio-political practice. The latter is delineated in the final part addressing the societal domestication of uncertainty.

This book will be of great interest to scholars and students in philosophy, social and natural sciences, risk research, as well as inter- and transdisciplinary science fields.

Andreas Klinke is a political scientist and sociologist. He is a Full Professor and the Director of the Environmental Policy Institute (EPI) at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada. In addition, he is an external member of the Center for International Development and Environmental Research at the University of Giessen in Germany. Prior to that, he worked at the ETH-domain in Zurich, Switzerland, at King’s College in London, as well as at the University of Stuttgart, the Center of Technology Assessment in Stuttgart, and at the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) in Germany.