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<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" lang="en">Uncertainty</h1>
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<div id="mw-content-text" lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-
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searchable">For the film of the same name, see <a href="/wiki/Uncertainty_(film)"
title="Uncertainty (film)">Uncertainty (film)</a>.</div>
<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux"
style="display:none">Situation which involves imperfect and/or unknown information,
regarding the existing state, environment, a future outcome or more than one
possible outcomes</div>
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important;clear:both;float:none;margin-left:0!important;margin-right:0!
important}}</style><table class="sidebar sidebar-collapse vertical-navbox
nomobile"><tbody><tr><td class="sidebar-pretitle">Part of a series
on</td></tr><tr><th class="sidebar-title-with-pretitle"><a
href="/wiki/Epistemology" title="Epistemology">Epistemology</a></th></tr><tr><td
class="sidebar-above navbox-abovebelow" style="padding:0.15em 0.15em 0.25em;
display:block; margin-bottom:0.55em; background-color: #efefef;">
<div class="hlist hlist-separated">
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Epistemology"
title="Category:Epistemology">Category</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Index_of_epistemology_articles" title="Index of epistemology
articles">Index</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Outline_of_epistemology" title="Outline of
epistemology">Outline</a></li></ul>
</div></td></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content hlist" style="padding-
left:0.5em;padding-right:0.5em;">
<p><b>Core concepts</b>
</p>
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/Belief" title="Belief">Belief</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Justification_(epistemology)" title="Justification
(epistemology)">Justification</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Knowledge" title="Knowledge">Knowledge</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Truth" title="Truth">Truth</a></li></ul></td>
</tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content hlist" style="padding-left:0.5em;padding-
right:0.5em;">
<hr />
<p><b>Distinctions</b>
</p>
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/A_priori_and_a_posteriori" title="A priori and a
posteriori">A priori vs. A posteriori</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Analytic%E2%80%93synthetic_distinction" title="Analytic–
synthetic distinction">Analytic vs. Synthetic</a></li></ul></td>
</tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content hlist" style="padding-left:0.5em;padding-
right:0.5em;">
<hr />
<p><b>Schools of thought</b>
</p>
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/Empiricism" title="Empiricism">Empiricism</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Naturalized_epistemology" title="Naturalized
epistemology">Naturalism</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Pragmatism" title="Pragmatism">Pragmatism</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Rationalism" title="Rationalism">Rationalism</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Relativism" title="Relativism">Relativism</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Philosophical_skepticism" title="Philosophical
skepticism">Skepticism</a></li></ul></td>
</tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content hlist" style="padding-left:0.5em;padding-
right:0.5em;">
<hr />
<p><b>Topics and views</b>
</p>
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/Certainty" title="Certainty">Certainty</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Coherentism" title="Coherentism">Coherentism</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Contextualism" title="Contextualism">Contextualism</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Dogmatism" class="mw-redirect"
title="Dogmatism">Dogmatism</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Experience" title="Experience">Experience</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Fallibilism" title="Fallibilism">Fallibilism</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Foundationalism"
title="Foundationalism">Foundationalism</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Problem_of_induction" title="Problem of
induction">Induction</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Infallibilism" title="Infallibilism">Infallibilism</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Infinitism" title="Infinitism">Infinitism</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Rationality" title="Rationality">Rationality</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Reason" title="Reason">Reason</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Solipsism" title="Solipsism">Solipsism</a></li></ul></td>
</tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content hlist" style="padding-left:0.5em;padding-
right:0.5em;">
<hr />
<p><b>Specialized domains of inquiry</b>
</p>
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/Evolutionary_epistemology" title="Evolutionary
epistemology">Evolutionary epistemology</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Feminist_epistemology" title="Feminist epistemology">Feminist
epistemology</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Formal_epistemology" title="Formal epistemology">Formal
epistemology</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Metaepistemology"
title="Metaepistemology">Metaepistemology</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Social_epistemology" title="Social epistemology">Social
epistemology</a></li></ul></td>
</tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content hlist" style="padding-left:0.5em;padding-
right:0.5em;">
<hr />
<p><b>Notable epistemologists</b>
</p>
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes" title="René Descartes">René
Descartes</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Sextus_Empiricus" title="Sextus Empiricus">Sextus
Empiricus</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Edmund_Gettier" title="Edmund Gettier">Edmund Gettier</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/David_Hume" title="David Hume">David Hume</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Immanuel_Kant" title="Immanuel Kant">Immanuel Kant</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Willard_Van_Orman_Quine" title="Willard Van Orman Quine">W. V.
O. Quine</a></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/List_of_epistemologists" title="List of
epistemologists">more...</a></i></li></ul></td>
</tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content hlist" style="padding-left:0.5em;padding-
right:0.5em;">
<hr />
<p><b>Related fields</b>
</p>
<ul><li><a href="/wiki/Epistemic_logic" class="mw-redirect" title="Epistemic
logic">Epistemic logic</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Philosophy_of_mind" title="Philosophy of mind">Philosophy of
mind</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Philosophy_of_perception" title="Philosophy of
perception">Philosophy of perception</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Philosophy_of_science" title="Philosophy of science">Philosophy
of science</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Bayesian_probability" title="Bayesian
probability">Probability</a></li></ul></td>
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decision must be made when the results of each possible choice are
uncertain.</div></div></div>
<p><b>Uncertainty</b> refers to <a href="/wiki/Epistemology"
title="Epistemology">epistemic</a> situations involving imperfect or unknown <a
href="/wiki/Information" title="Information">information</a>. It applies to
predictions of future events, to physical measurements that are already made, or to
the unknown. Uncertainty arises in <a href="/wiki/Partially_observable" class="mw-
redirect" title="Partially observable">partially observable</a> and/or <a
href="/wiki/Stochastic" title="Stochastic">stochastic</a> environments, as well as
due to <a href="/wiki/Ignorance" title="Ignorance">ignorance</a>, <a
href="/wiki/Laziness" title="Laziness">indolence</a>, or both.<sup id="cite_ref-1"
class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup> It arises in any
number of fields, including <a href="/wiki/Insurance"
title="Insurance">insurance</a>, <a href="/wiki/Philosophy"
title="Philosophy">philosophy</a>, <a href="/wiki/Physics"
title="Physics">physics</a>, <a href="/wiki/Statistics"
title="Statistics">statistics</a>, <a href="/wiki/Economics"
title="Economics">economics</a>, <a href="/wiki/Finance"
title="Finance">finance</a>, <a href="/wiki/Psychology"
title="Psychology">psychology</a>, <a href="/wiki/Sociology"
title="Sociology">sociology</a>, <a href="/wiki/Engineering"
title="Engineering">engineering</a>, <a href="/wiki/Metrology"
title="Metrology">metrology</a>, <a href="/wiki/Meteorology"
title="Meteorology">meteorology</a>, <a href="/wiki/Ecology"
title="Ecology">ecology</a> and <a href="/wiki/Information_science"
title="Information science">information science</a>.
</p>
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<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7"><a href="#References"><span
class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8"><a href="#Further_reading"><span
class="tocnumber">8</span> <span class="toctext">Further reading</span></a></li>
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