Overview of This Book on Strategic Decision-Making Under Uncertainty

Explains how and why uncertainty is everything. Argues that because uncertainty is ubiquitous—affecting every decision—a rational way of approaching it is needed. Given the avoidance of uncertainty in the past—because it entails the non-optimizability of decisions—and due to the increased effects of it in the present (as seen in devastating shocks of the economic and environmental kind), it is worth delving further into for the future. That is the basis for this book and why it is needed now. Explains and argues for the approach taken—in using decision-making as the structure for analysis, in applying an objective reality perspective, and in the definitions and delineations proposed. Previews some big philosophical questions, quoting from previous analyses of uncertainty. Presents a plan for the rest of the book.