Worlds of Uncertainty

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 Haldn 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. Haldn 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.