Risk informed decision-making and its ethical basis

Gerhard Ersdal and Terje Aven

Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 2008, vol. 93, issue 2, 197-205

Abstract: In decision-making under uncertainty there are two main questions that need to be evaluated: (i) What are the future consequences and associated uncertainties of an action, and (ii) what is a good (or right) decision or action. Philosophically these issues are categorized as epistemic questions (i.e. questions of knowledge) and ethical questions (i.e. questions of moral and norms). This paper discusses the second issue, and evaluates different risk management approaches for establishing good decisions, using different ethical theories as a basis. These theories include the utilitarian ethics of Bentley and Mills, and deontological ethics of Kant, Rawls and Habermas. The risk management approaches include cost–benefit analysis (CBA), minimum safety criterion, the ALARP principle and the precautionary principle.

Keywords: Risk analysis; Decision-making; Ethics; Multiattribute analysis; Cost–benefit analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reensy:v:93:y:2008:i:2:p:197-205

DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2006.12.018

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