Maybe We Should Try the Precautionary Principle?

ABSTRACT

How do policy‐makers call shots on major decisions—such as putting a country into lockdown to mitigate the risk of Covid‐19—when they don't have all the scientific facts about how the virus spreads? And to which moral values do they appeal when weighing the health and economic risks involved? David B. Resnik addresses such questions in his book Precautionary Reasoning in Environmental and Public Health Policy (Springer, 2021), which provides a fresh perspective on the precautionary principle. The precautionary principle captures the common intuition “better safe than sorry” but is also a contentious facet of precautionary reasoning. Resnik's novel approach to the precautionary principle and detailed discussion of moral values makes this book an excellent read for anyone interested in policy‐making, philosophy, or public health.