ABSTRACT
“Uncertainty” refers to a psychological state of an agent where he/she does not possess the capacity of sufficient epistemic justification for a belief. This concept can be analyzed in two basic ways—epistemologically and decision theoretically. The former concerns the epistemic status of a belief and the latter concerns the knowledge of the probabilities of an outcome for a decision. Both analyses are important in public policy decisions in that 1) uncertainty is a feature of countless public policies; and 2) the way of thinking of this concept changes depending on whether we are asking questions concerning the future, present, or the past, theory, or application.
