Risk
Updated 2026-09-10
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
The study of risk has developed since the 1970s into an important interdisciplinary field, connected to several branches of philosophy, involving the definition of risk and questions in epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of technology, ethics, decision theory, and philosophy of economics. At its simplest, risk joins the probability of an event with the severity of its outcomes.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Two-dimensional assessment: split risk into probability and severity of consequences, and avoid looking at only one side. - Responsibility inquiry: ask who bears the risk, who benefits, and whether there is informed consent. - Threshold setting: set differentiated acceptability levels for consequences of different kinds.
Anchor fast decisions
Risk is a philosophical problem because it joins fact and value at both ends: one end is uncertainty or probability, the other is the severity and acceptability of consequences. The same probability data carries entirely different ethical meaning under different arrangements of who bears the risk, who benefits, and whether there was informed consent, so risk cannot be reduced to a bare number.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- plato.stanford.eduhttps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/risk/verified
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