Ignorance and Uncertainty - Emerging Paradigms

Abstract

"Ignorance and Uncertainty" brings together a variety of recent approaches to the problem of indeterminacies in human thought and behavior. This book examines the development of new formalisms for representing and analyzing ignorance in fields such as knowledge engineering, as well as trends in the psychology of judgment and decision making under ignorance. Research insights from the fields of risk analysis, expert systems, artifical intelligence, cognitive and social psychology, organizational studies, sociology, and social anthropolgy are reviewed here in anticipation of what Dr. Smithson characterizes as the beginning of a "creative dialogue between these reesarchers." "Ignorance and Uncertainty" also offers a conceptual framework for integrating our understanding of current research, and a discussion of the ways in which attitudes towards ignorance and uncertainty are changing.