# Chanter V: Confronting uncertainties
digraph { layout=dot rankdir=LR overlap=false concentrate=false bgcolor=lightblue1 // splines=" " node [shape=ellipse style=filled] label="\nCONFRONTING UNDERTAINTIES\nEdgar Morin" Science [color=blue fontcolor=white] Uncertainty "Study of\nUncertainties" [color=white] "Dealing with\nChance" "Navigate\non a Sea of\nUncertainties" [color=yellow] Unexpected Adventure [color=yellow] Unpredictable "Expect the\nUnexpected" "Forward Posts of\nUncertainty" [color=yellow] Art [color=red fontcolor=white] Art -> {Unexpected Adventure Unpredictable "Navigate\non a Sea of\nUncertainties" "Expect the\nUnexpected" Uncertainty "Dealing with\nChance"} [color=red penwidth=2] "Study of\nUncertainties" -> {Art Science} Science -> { "Dealing with\nChance" Unexpected Unpredictable Uncertainty "Navigate\non a Sea of\nUncertainties" } [color=blue penwidth=2] Adventure -> "Navigate\non a Sea of\nUncertainties" "Expect the\nUnexpected" -> Adventure { Adventure "Navigate\non a Sea of\nUncertainties"} -> "Forward Posts of\nUncertainty" }
>We have acquired many certainties through science but 20th century science has also revealed many areas of uncertainty. Education should include the study of uncertainties that have emerged in the physical sciences (microphysics, thermodynamics, cosmology), the sciences of biological evolution, the historical sciences.
>We should teach strategic principles for dealing with chance, the unexpected and uncertain, and ways to modify these strategies in response to continuing acquisition of new information. We should learn to navigate on a sea of uncertainties, sailing in and around islands of certainty.
>“The expected doesn’t occur and [the gods] open the door for the unexpected.” These lines, composed more than 25 centuries ago by the Greek poet Euripides, are more than ever relevant. Determinist conceptions of human history that claimed to predict our future have been forsaken, the study of major events and accidents of our century shows how unexpected they were, the course of the human adventure is unpredictable: this should incite us to prepare our minds to expect the unexpected and confront it. Every person who takes on educational responsibilities must be ready to go to the forward posts of uncertainty in our times.