ClassificationsofUncertainty
ClassificationofTypesofUncertainty(EconomicLanguage)
Risk:Uniqueprobabilitiesdescribingtheuncertainty
Objective
Subjective
Ambiguity/Knightian uncertainty/deepuncertainty:Possibleoutcomes
areknown butcorrespondingprobabilitiescannotbeuniquelyassessed
areknown,butcorrespondingprobabilitiescannotbeuniquelyassessed
Unforeseencontingencies:Dontevenforeseepossibleconsequences
Exogenousrisk:
Thepossibleoutcomesandtheirprobabilitiesaregivenbynature
Endogenousrisk:
E d i k
Wehavesomecontrolovertheprobabilitieswewillface
Riskanduncertainty
TheUnknown.
Asweknow,
Thereareknownknowns.
Therearethingsweknowweknow.
Wealsoknow
Thereareknownunknowns.
Thatistosay
Weknowtherearesomethings
Wedonotknow.
Buttherearealsounknownunknowns,
Theoneswedon'tknow
Wedon'tknow
Wedon tknow.
D.H.RumsfeldFeb.12,2002,DepartmentofDefense newsbriefing,slightlyadapted,seealso
http://www youtube com/watch?v= RpSv3HjpEw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RpSv3HjpEw
UncertaintyintheIPCC(TypesofUncertainty,IPCClanguage)
Source:GuidanceNotesforLeadAuthorsoftheIPCCFourthAssessment
ReportonAddressingUncertainties
UncertaintyintheIPCC Confidence
Table3,canbeusedtocharacterizeuncertaintythatisbasedonexpert
judgment astothecorrectnessofamodel,ananalysisorastatement.
UncertaintyintheIPCC Likelihood
Ifenoughevidenceprevails,IPCCusesLikelihood
Itreferstoaprobabilisticassessmentofsomewelldefinedoutcome
havingoccurredoroccurringinthefuture.Thecategoriesdefinedin
thistableshouldbeconsideredashavingfuzzyboundaries.