Practical Considerations for Using Reflective Equilibrium to Support the Precautionary Principle

By Tanja Rechnitzer

How should we approach uncertain threats of potentially very serious harm? For

example, how long should social distancing measures be enforced against the spread

of COVID-19? Should we research and develop climate engineering technologies

as a measure against climate change harms? Should glyphosate herbicides be

banned? Such and similar decisions have potentially far-reaching consequences

for the environment or human health; yet they often have to be made under

considerable uncertainty, for example, uncertainty about the extent of possible harm,

its likelihood, or cause-and-effect relations. Frequently, precautionary principles

(PPs) are proposed as an answer to such challenges, telling us that we have to

act to prevent harm even if it is uncertain. However, this idea also comes in for

criticism as being alarmist, anti-scientific, and in effect doing more harm than good

by causing high costs and stifling innovation. The question of how we should deal

with uncertain harms is clearly a controversial one. When we seek to address this

issue, we are not only faced with the question of whether precautionary principles

are justified. More fundamentally, the methodological question arises of how such

principles can be justified-what is an adequate method for the justification of a

precautionary principle?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1805307185
• ISBN13: 9781805307181
• Release Date: June 2023
• Publisher: Independent Author
• Length: 278 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"