precautionary principle
Sign in to saveAlso known as Precautionary Approach
risk management strategy emphasizing caution in scientific proceedings
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 609 inbound references to precautionary principle, and connects out to European Commission, GMO and Earth Summit.
Vinony files it under Doubt, Environmental policy and European Union law.
Vinony links it to 37 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- general principles of European Union law
- Has part
- factor of safety
Show 3 more facts
- on focus list of Wikimedia project
- WikiProject Climate change
- has characteristic
- social responsibility
- discoverer or inventor
- Hans Jonas
via Wikidata · CC0
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The precautionary principle (or precautionary approach) is a broad epistemological, philosophical and legal approach to innovations with potential for causing harm when extensive scientific knowledge on the matter is lacking. It emphasizes caution, pausing and review before leaping into new innovations that may prove disastrous. Critics argue that it is vague, self-cancelling, unscientific and an obstacle to progress.
In an engineering context, the precautionary principle manifests itself as the factor of safety. It was apparently suggested, in civil engineering, by Belidor in 1729. Interrelation between safety factor and reliability is extensively studied by engineers and philosophers.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “precautionary principle” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.