Why Your Lifelong Fears Are Probably Groundless

Wojciech Janicki, Editor

Our social environment operates based on imaginary orders to organize us – a set of beliefs that don’t stem from the world of science but from a collective, often informal, social contract.

These beliefs and convictions define what is proper and reasonable and what is wrong and undesirable, identify threats, and indicate how we should behave if those threats arise.

Is the balance of costs and benefits from the extraction of shale gas trapped in formations from the Lower Paleozoic positive or negative? Is cell phone usage safe for humans, or a lethal threat?

Knowledge provides us with answers to such questions. It is the only ground to resolve beneficial and harmful dilemmas. If we follow Plato in defining knowledge as a belief that is logically true and supported by evidence, we arrive at the heart of the problem the authors tackle: how humanity has distinguished what is desirable and safe from what is undesirable and dangerous.

Publication Date of July 10, 2024.