Silvio Funtowicz

Key takeaways

Silvio Funtowicz belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Silvio Funtowicz to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Silvio Funtowicz from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Silvio O. Funtowicz is a philosopher of science active in the field of science and technology studies. He created the NUSAP, a notational system for characterising uncertainty and quality in quantitative expressions, and together with Jerome R. Ravetz he introduced the concept of post-normal science. He is currently a guest researcher at the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT), University of Bergen (Norway).

Biography Silvio Funtowicz began his career teaching mathematics, logic and research methodology in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He left Argentina during the military dictatorship, and moved to England where, during the 1980s he was a Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, where he started his cooperation with Jerome Ravetz. Until his retirement in 2011, he was a scientific officer at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC). In 2012 he became a professor at the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT) at the University of Bergen, Norway, and since 2021 he has been a guest researcher there.

Work Silvio Funtowicz' work with Jerome R. Ravetz Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy started a series of reflections on the quality of science used for policy, mostly in connection with environmental and technological risks and policy-related research, introducing NUSAP a notational system for the management and communication of uncertainty in science for policy. NUSAP's applications to different settings were spearheaded in the Netherlands by Jeroen van der Sluijs et al. 2005. Based on this ground work the concept of post-normal science was introduced in a series of papers published in the early nineties. The article ‘Science for the post-normal age’ is presently the most cited paper in the journal Futures. Another paper of note is 'The worth of a songbird: ecological economics as a post-normal science' in Ecological Economics. Today post-normal science (PNS) is intended as applicable to most instances where the use of evidence is contested due to different norms and values. For Peter Gluckman (2014), chief science advisor to the Prime Minister of New Zealand, post-normal science approaches are today appropriate for a host of problems including “eradication of exogenous pests […], offshore oil prospecting, legalization of recreational psychotropic drugs, water quality, family violence, obesity, teenage morbidity and suicide, the ageing population, the prioritization of early-childhood education, reduction of agricultural greenhouse gases, and balancing economic growth and environmental sustainability”. For Carrozza PNS can be “framed in terms of a call for the ‘democratization of expertise’”, and as a “reaction against long-term trends of ‘scientization’ of politics—the tendency towards assigning to experts a critical role in policymaking while marginalizing laypeople”. Funtowicz’ most recent work – with Roger Strand - has touched upon the issue of agency at times of change, arguing that a risk centred vision based on prediction and control in front of global and emerging threats should be replaced by one based on commitment: “rather than believing that contemporary global challenges will be sufficiently met by being responsible under risk, we will ask how to stay committed in times of change.” Together with Ângela Guimarães Pereira he curated a volume for Oxford University Press ‘Science for Policy: New Challenges, New Opportunities’, and another with Routledge on the End of the Cartesian Dream which represent an important collective effort gathering three generations of scholars active in the field of PNS, followed a year later by a multi-authors book by the same community on the reproducibility and quality control crisis of science. Together with Andrea Saltelli and others, he developed the concept of sensitivity auditing, an extension of sensitivity analysis for statistical and mathematical models used as input to policy design and appraisal. He has authored with Alice Benessia a series of works on innovations and technoscience. These are critical essays on what it means for a society to be ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. With Jerome R. Ravetz he recently contributed two original voices to the Encyclopaedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (Oxford) on ‘Peer Review and Quality Control’ and on ‘New Forms of Science. Since the nineties he has worked with Bruna De Marchi and others on risk governance and public participation. In the 1990s, Silvio Funtowicz collaborated with the late James J. Kay and other members of what some have called the "Dirk Gently Gang" (including Mario Giampietro and David Waltner-Toews) on the Ecosystem Approach. This work, linking complexity theory, thermodynamics, and post-normal science, explored implications of this "new science" for environmental management and human well-being. Another scholar Silvio Funtowicz cooperates with is Martin O’Connor. His most recent work focuses on the crisis in the quality control of science, its impact on science's social functions, the possible flaring of old and new science wars, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bibliography Funtowicz, Silvio O.; Ravetz, Jerome R. (1990). Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7923-0799-0.

See also NUSAP post-normal science Jerome Ravetz

External links The nusap net maintained by Jeroen van der Sluijs More articles and excerpts from S. Funtowicz's works Home page of David Waltner-Toews Article on The Conversation (website) November 16, 2016 Article on The Conversation (website) January 27, 2017 A Post Normal Poem, in honour of Silvio Funtowicz for his 70th birthday, by David Waltner-Toews, September 2016. Video of a lecture: Post Normal Science: Exploring Collective Accountability, 6 March 2019, Trento. Audio of a lecture: On the rhetoric of sustainability, presented at the Forum for Science and Democracy, Bergen, November 1st, 2019

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Silvio Funtowicz

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Silvio Funtowicz claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Silvio Funtowicz before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Silvio Funtowicz ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Silvio Funtowicz

In research: Silvio Funtowicz appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Silvio Funtowicz in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Silvio Funtowicz is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century Argentine philosophers, 21st-century Argentine philosophers, Academics of the University of Leeds, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Silvio Funtowicz outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Silvio Funtowicz in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Silvio Funtowicz means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Silvio Funtowicz out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Silvio Funtowicz in simple terms?

Silvio O. Funtowicz is a philosopher of science active in the field of science and technology studies.

Why does Silvio Funtowicz matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Silvio Funtowicz?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Silvio Funtowicz.