Anticipation in the Human and Social Sciences

Abstract

This Chapter presents a sample of human and social sciences – notably psychology, anthropology, sociology and economics. It is the longest chapter of the book, because the contributions of human and social sciences to anticipation are so extensive that it was simply not possible to cover them properly in fewer pages. The following five aspects emerge from the overview as likely components of the incipient theory of anticipation: (1) The difference between calculable risks and incalculable uncertainty; (2) the difference between the distant future and the future in the present; (3) the difference between continuous future and the discontinuous or ruptured future; (4) the difference between systems able to use the future as opposed to systems unable to do so; (5) the variety of anticipations, arranged along different dimensions (biological, psychological, and social; explicit vs. implicit, etc.).