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1 results

  • Chapter 1 - Worldviews and Small and Large Worlds

  • Peter J. Katzenstein, Cornell University, New York
  • Book:
    Entanglements in World Politics
    Published online:
    27 November 2025
    Print publication:
    11 December 2025, pp 31-62
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  • Summary

    Worldviews ground different theories and models in their encounters with the risk-uncertainty conundrum. This chapter introduces the concept of worldview as elaborated by its two pre-eminent theorists, Wilhelm Dilthey and Max Weber (section 1). It then discusses worldviews in general, alluding briefly to two alternatives to Newtonian humanism (section 2). Elaborating on the metaphor of small and large worlds the chapter finally shows how objective and subjective probabilities are seeking (unsuccessfully) to sidestep the risk-uncertainty conundrum and how both are, implausibly, reinforcing the sweet common sense we call Newtonian humanism. That “common sense” predisposes us to focus on risk while neglecting uncertainty (section 3).