Overview

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.

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9781009392693

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Reviews

'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

‘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

Author Information

Peter Haldén is Associate Professor in the Department of War Studies and Military History at the Swedish Defence University.

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