Talk:Silvio Funtowicz

Unnamed talk page section in 2020

Removed online links; please let me know if this is now OK. User:Saltean

Hi, Saltean. I'd say the Poem/Video/Audio sections are still external links. Perhaps could be merged with that section? As an aside, you can use ~~~~ to automatically sign your posts on Talk pages. -Kj cheetham (talk) 17:17, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

Hi Kj cheetham. I regrouped the sections with external links under the section 'external links' as you suggested. As per Prof. Funtowicz being one of my co-authors, which is clearly the case, what would you like me to do? My impression is that what I wrote is rather factual. If I may say, at my age the list of people I wrote papers with is rather long ... Thanks for any advice. Andrea Saltelli 14:28, 16 August 2020 (UTC)

Hi Saltean. That's probably a step in the right direction, thank you. When working on an article of someone you personally know you need to to declare it somewhere, such as the Talk page or your own userpage. I've already tagged this Talk page with you as a connected contributor. The guidelines at WP:COISELF say it's generally best to refrain from editing directly though. Regarding citing your own papers, the only official advice I could find was at WP:SELFCITE. The other option is to ask for further advice at Wikipedia:Teahouse, where someone more familar with Wikipedia policy should be able to assist. I hope that helps! -Kj cheetham (talk) 19:59, 16 August 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for these words of advice; I would like to note that the {{COI|date=August 2020}} advice on top of the page is quite severe, and suggests a non-neutrality of the content. Would you perhaps volunteer to read the page and flag instances of non-neutrality so that I can remove them? Otherwise would you trust me to read this carefully and then remove the COI? If neither of these works, what avenue is left to remove the COI note? Note that I do everything transparently, i.e. my username reveals my identity. Andrea Saltelli 13:35, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

Finally, we may anyhow agree that from now on, I will refrain to edit this page any further.

Saltean, Thank you for your reply. I've just had a read over the article myself, and made a minor edit. The only other thing I'd suggest is around the section where it talks about sensitivity analysis it has 2 or 3 paper refs for certain points, where a single ref would probably be sufficient, as per WP:CITETRIM. I've taken off the COI, as it's been discussed here. -Kj cheetham (talk) 12:55, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

Thanks Kj cheetham, it was done, extra references have been removed. All the best. Andrea Saltelli 13:35, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

Edit request 11 September 2026

I am the subject of this article and have a disclosed conflict of interest (see my user page). I'd like to propose the following additions/corrections, with sources:

1. Correct the 1990 book's publisher location from "Boston" to "Dordrecht" — confirmed by this review and this one.

2. Correct the 1993 Futures citation from "31(7), 735–755" to "25(7), 739–755" — confirmed by DOI 10.1016/0016-3287(93)90022-L.

3. Expand the biography and work sections with additional sourced material (draft below).

Silvio O. Funtowicz is an Argentine-born philosopher of science whose work concerns science and technology studies, uncertainty and quality in science for policy, and the governance of complex problems. With Jerome R. Ravetz, he developed NUSAP, a system for characterising uncertainty and quality in quantitative information, and post-normal science (PNS), an approach to science for policy under conditions of high uncertainty or high decision stakes. In 2025, Funtowicz and Ravetz jointly received the Kenneth E. Boulding Memorial Award for Ecological Economics. Funtowicz is a guest researcher at the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT), University of Bergen, and a co-director of the European Centre for Governance in Complexity (ECGC), together with Roger Strand and Zora Kovacic.

Biography

Funtowicz began his academic career in Buenos Aires, where he taught mathematics, logic and research methodology. He was associated with the Sociedad Argentina de Análisis Filosófico (SADAF).

Funtowicz moved to England in late 1980, intending to continue his research on Lakatos. In 1981 he met Jerome R. Ravetz, with whom he began a long collaboration on scientific uncertainty, quantitative information and the quality of science used for policy. During the 1980s Funtowicz was a Research Fellow at Leeds.

In 1989 he joined the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC), where he worked as a scientific officer until his retirement in 2011. From 2012 to 2021 he was Professor II at the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities at the University of Bergen, where he has since remained as a guest researcher.

Work

Uncertainty, quality and NUSAP

Funtowicz's collaboration with Ravetz developed around the use of quantitative scientific information in policy and the treatment of uncertainty in such information.

Their 1990 book, Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy, presented NUSAP, a notational system for communicating and evaluating uncertainty and quality in quantitative information. The acronym refers to Numeral, Unit, Spread, Assessment and Pedigree, combining quantitative expressions of uncertainty with qualitative appraisal. A Chinese translation was published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press in 2010 under the title Farewell to "Magic Numbers": Uncertainty and Quality Management in Science for Policy.

NUSAP was subsequently applied and further developed in environmental assessment and in the appraisal of quantitative information and models used in policy, including work by Jeroen van der Sluijs and collaborators.

Post-normal science

Funtowicz and Ravetz developed post-normal science from their work during the 1980s on uncertainty, quality and risk assessment. The approach was developed through the 1991 chapter "A New Scientific Methodology for Global Environmental Issues", and the 1992 chapter "Three Types of Risk Assessment and the Emergence of Post-Normal Science". Their 1993 Futures article "Science for the Post-Normal Age" provided its best-known formulation.

Post-normal science has since been discussed and applied in areas including environmental governance, risk assessment, public health and sustainability. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Funtowicz and collaborators argued that the pandemic exhibited the characteristic conditions of a post-normal problem. Their essay first appeared on the STEPS Centre blog.

Ecological economics and complexity

Funtowicz and Ravetz connected PNS with ecological economics. Their 1994 article "The Worth of a Songbird: Ecological Economics as a Post-Normal Science" examined uncertainty, value commitments and quality in environmental appraisal.

During the 1990s Funtowicz collaborated with James J. Kay, David Waltner-Toews and Mario Giampietro on complexity and ecosystem approaches to environmental management, and with Martin O'Connor on ecological economics and the development of post-normal approaches to sustainability.

In 2025, on the occasion of the Boulding Award, Funtowicz and Ravetz published "Knowledge, Power, and Participation in the Post-Normal Age" in Ecological Economics.

Participation, science policy and the quality of science

Since the 1990s Funtowicz has collaborated with Bruna De Marchi and others on risk governance, public participation and access to information. This work included a study of the Seveso disaster with De Marchi and Ravetz.

With Ângela Guimarães Pereira, he edited Science for Policy: New Challenges, New Opportunities (2009) and Science, Philosophy and Sustainability: The End of the Cartesian Dream (2015).

Funtowicz was also one of the authors of The Rightful Place of Science: Science on the Verge (2016), a multi-author volume with Alice Benessia and other collaborators. His chapter with Benessia, "Never late, never lost and never unprepared", examined trajectories of innovation and modes of demarcating science from society.

With Alice Benessia and Ângela Guimarães Pereira, Funtowicz also explored how artistic practices and other ways of knowing could contribute within extended peer communities, including the 2015 article "Sustainability and techno-science: What do we want to sustain and for whom?" With Andrea Saltelli, he subsequently addressed scientific quality and governance in the 2017 Futures article "What Is Science's Crisis Really About?".

Funtowicz also contributed, with Saltelli, Guimarães Pereira and van der Sluijs, to the development of sensitivity auditing for mathematical models used in policy.

Governance in complexity

Through ECGC, Funtowicz has worked with Roger Strand and Zora Kovacic on complexity, sustainability and public governance, including work connected with the European Union's MAGIC project and the European Environment Agency.

With Strand, he published "Change and Commitment: Beyond Risk and Responsibility" (2011).

Selected works

• Funtowicz, Silvio O.; Ravetz, Jerome R. (1990). Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-7923-0799-2
• Funtowicz, Silvio O.; Ravetz, Jerome R. (1993). "Science for the Post-Normal Age." Futures, 25(7), 739–755.
• Funtowicz, Silvio O.; Ravetz, Jerome R. (1994). "The Worth of a Songbird: Ecological Economics as a Post-Normal Science." Ecological Economics, 10(3), 197–207.
• Guimarães Pereira, Ângela; Funtowicz, Silvio (eds.) (2009). Science for Policy: New Challenges, New Opportunities. Oxford University Press.
• Funtowicz, Silvio; Strand, Roger (2011). "Change and Commitment: Beyond Risk and Responsibility." Journal of Risk Research, 14(8), 995–1003.
• Benessia, Alice; Funtowicz, Silvio; Giampietro, Mario; Guimarães Pereira, Ângela; Ravetz, Jerome; Saltelli, Andrea; Strand, Roger; van der Sluijs, Jeroen P. (2016). The Rightful Place of Science: Science on the Verge. Tempe, Arizona: Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes.
• Funtowicz, Silvio; Ravetz, Jerome R. (2025). "Knowledge, Power, and Participation in the Post-Normal Age." Ecological Economics, 237, 108716.

References

Happy to answer any questions about sourcing. Thank you for your time. Funtosi (talk) 16:13, 11 September 2026 (UTC)

One correction to my proposal above: the link to "Roger Strand" in the lead sentence points to a disambiguation page (two unrelated people, a US judge and a Minnesota politician), not the Roger Strand at ECGC/Bergen. He doesn't currently have his own article, so it should just be plain text, not a wikilink. Apologies for the oversight. Funtosi (talk) Funtosi (talk) 16:20, 11 September 2026 (UTC)

Following up: I've uploaded a photo of myself to Commons — File:Silvio Funtowicz, philosopher of science.jpg — taken by me, released under a free license. I'd like to propose it be added as the article's infobox image. Funtosi (talk) Funtosi (talk) 16:48, 11 September 2026 (UTC)

Retagged your request as a COI request. AlphaBetaDeltaLambda(αβδλ)^talk 11:16, 12 September 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, happy to answer any questions Funtosi (talk) 11:31, 12 September 2026 (UTC)

Edit request: two citation corrections

I have a disclosed conflict of interest (I am the subject; see my user page). Two small factual corrections, split out from my larger request above so they can be handled separately:

1. In the entry for the 1990 book Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy, change the publisher location from "Boston" to "Dordrecht" (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht; ISBN 0-7923-0799-2).
2. In the citation for "Science for the Post-Normal Age" (Futures, 1993), change "31(7), 735–755" to "25(7), 739–755", as confirmed by the DOI: doi:10.1016/0016-3287(93)90022-L.

Thank you. Funtosi (talk) 15:56, 25 September 2026 (UTC)