Worlds of Uncertainty
Worlds of Uncertainty
Looking for an inspection copy?
This title is not currently available for inspection.
In recent years we have faced huge uncertainty and unpredictability across the world: Covid-19, political turbulence, climate change and war in Europe, among many other events. Through a historical analysis of worldviews, Peter Haldén provides nuance to the common belief in an uncertain world by showing the predictable nature of modern society and arguing that human beings create predictability through norms, laws, trust and collaboration. Haldén shows that, since the Renaissance, two worldviews define Western civilization: first, that the world is knowable and governed by laws, regularities, mechanisms or plan, hence it is possible to control and the future is possible to foresee; second, that the world is governed by chance, impossible to predict and control and therefore shocks and surprises are inevitable. Worlds of Uncertainty argues that between these two extremes lie positions that recognize the principal unpredictability of the world but seek pragmatic ways of navigating through it.
- Argues that the co-existence, conflict and co-constitution of two principally contradictory worldviews are what define and shape modern Western culture
- Aims to decrease the anxiety and uncertainty many people feel about the world and provide a realistic picture of how much they can control and overcome crises
- Offers added value to military students, analysts and planners who will become more aware of the activities in which they are engaged and of the limits and possibilities within different ways of thinking
Reviews & endorsements
'Taking us on a grand tour revisiting cultures of certainty and uncertainty from the Renaissance onwards, Peter Haldén explores the many paradoxes their coexistence has given rise to and suggests pragmatic ways of handling these. Written with characteristic acumen and ease, Worlds of Uncertainty offers a fresh and imaginative take on perennial problems of predictability and should be of interest to students of international relations, social theory and strategic studies.' Jens Bartelson, Lund University
'Peter Haldén has written a brilliant, highly original book that offers a new perspective on modernity and social science. He does this by focusing on two fundamental and seemingly opposed beliefs about the world: one that describes it as predictable and controllable; the other, as uncertain and chaotic. He argues that they are interconnected, that the one enables the other, that they have evolved in tandem, and that there are good reasons for believing that the social world has become more predictable. However, this recognition can encourage us to act in ways that increase uncertainty. What is needed – and the book takes important first steps – are visions of control and sophisticated understandings of the trade-offs between control and uncertainty.' Richard Ned Lebow, Department of War Studies, King's College London
'In this historically sweeping and intellectually rich analysis, Haldén aims to rethink the dominant understandings of uncertainty in the Western philosophical tradition. Focusing on the ontology of warfare from the early fourteenth century until today, he shows how uncertainty shaped the social and political thinking but also the military policy. This book demonstrates an impressive breadth of knowledge and provides an innovative analysis that challenges the common-sense understandings of uncertainty.' Siniša Malešević, University College, Dublin, and CNAM, Paris
Product details
November 2023Adobe eBook Reader
9781009392723
0 pages
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Divine providence, history and fortuna
- 3. Accommodations of uncertainty (1650–1790)
- 4. The future as promise, problem and project (1790–1913)
- 5. Hubris and trepidation (1914–1989)
- 6. Conjuring uncertainty (1989–2022)
- 7. Conclusions.
