“The world is not a solid continent of facts sprinkled by a few lakes of uncertainties, but a vast ocean of uncertainties speckled by a few islands of calibrated and stabilized forms”

Source: Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory

Last update Jan. 16, 2025. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The world is not a solid continent of facts sprinkled by a few lakes of uncertainties, but a vast ocean of uncertaintie…" by Bruno Latour?

Bruno Latour1

French sociologist, philosopher and anthropologist 1947

Related quotes

“Another discovery: uncertainty. Not just the uncertainty of the moment, which may pass, but oceanic uncertainty, mystery that washes across our beaches forever.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Four, People Changing

“It is not surprising that in talking about uncertainty we should lean heavily on facts, just as the court of law does when interrogating witnesses. Facts form a sort of bedrock on which we can build the shifting sands of uncertainty.”

Dennis Lindley (1923–2013) British statistician

2. Stylistic Questions. p. 19.
Understanding Uncertainty (2006)

“Uncertainty is a personal matter; it is not the uncertainty but your uncertainty.”

Dennis Lindley (1923–2013) British statistician

1. Introduction. p. 1.
Understanding Uncertainty (2006)

“Pacific Ocean, its shores, its islands, and the vast regions beyond, will become the chief theatre of events in the World's great Hereafter”

William H. Seward (1801–1872) American lawyer and politician

Commerce in the Pacific Ocean (1852)
Context: Who does not see, then, that every year hereafter, European commerce, European politics, European thoughts, and European activity, although actually gaining greater force and European connections, although actually becoming more intimate will nevertheless relatively sink in importance; while the Pacific Ocean, its shores, its islands, and the vast regions beyond, will become the chief theatre of events in the World's great Hereafter? Who does not see that this movement must effect our own complete emancipation from what remains of European influence and prejudice, and in turn develop the American opinion and influence which shall remould constitutions, laws, and customs, in the land that is first greeted by the rising sun?

“Uncertainty is the equivalent of a predator waiting in the shadows and pounces upon us when least expected. Frequently, we are aware of pending uncertainty, such as, waiting for the results; of a test, a pending loan application, a promotion or potential employment, and the fact uncertainty will be present for our entire life.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1990

“Belief in the stable state serves primarily to protect us from apprehension of the threats inherent in change. Belief in stability is a means of maintaining stability, or at any rate the illusion of stability. But the most threatening situations are those that confront us with uncertainty, and by ‘uncertainty’, I don’t mean risk, which is a probability ratio which we all know how to handle, particularly those who are managers of industry. We can deal with risk.”

Donald A. Schön (1930–1997) American academic

Donald Schon " REITH LECTURES 1970: Change and Industrial Society: Lecture 1: The Loss of the Stable State http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/radio4/transcripts/1970_reith1.pdf" at the BBC, 15 November 1970 – Radio 4; cited in: Richard Duane Carter (1981) Future challenges of management education. p. 102

“The greater the uncertainties of the world, the greater is the possibility that profits would go to venturesome and lucky rather than to logical, careful, fact-gathering individuals.”

Armen Alchian (1914–2013) American economist

"Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory", 1950