Business and Professional Ethics Journal

Volume 33, Issue 2/3, Summer 2014

How to Live Without Certainty, Without Being Paralyzed by Hesitation
An Introduction to the Special Topic Forum on Extreme Operating Environments

According to Bertrand Russell, philosophy should “teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation.” Recent natural and human-made disasters have confronted business leaders to act decisively without certainty in circumstances with profound implications for ethical well-being. This article introduces a Special Topic Forum on Extreme Operating Environments, defined as times of great uncertainty and/or crisis which challenge human capabilities, organizational operations, and social institutions.