The principle of inherently safe design aims at eliminating the sources of harm. The natural interpretation of such
a method is that we ensure that the harmful event will not
take place—if we remove the flammable substance, fire will
not occur. Naturally, we may say that the probability of a
harmful consequence is reduced. However, in most cases of
inherently safe design we are dealing with issues that are
hard to give a probabilistic treatment. Arguably, in line
with the Bayesian approach to probability, it is always
possible to assign exact probability values. Still, the very
kinds of situations referred to in Section 3 motivating
inclusion of an account of epistemic uncertainty are present
in applications of the principle of inherently safe design.
Inherently safe design is best viewed as a method for
protection against the unforeseen; it is not mainly the
worker at the assembly line putting together the same parts a hundred times a day that is in need of asymmetric parts
impossible to assemble incorrectly, but the passenger in a
burning lower deck compartment trying to assemble the
fire extinguisher. (Naturally, the worker in the assembly
line also needs help not to make mistakes; primarily in the
cases where she is tired, ill or absent-minded, i.e., the cases
hardest to treat probabilistically.) The principle of inherently safe design is a way to decrease the uncertainty about
whether harmful events will take place. The soundness of
the principle even when (meaningful) probability estimates
are difficult or impossible to obtain can be seen as an
application of the understanding of safety as uncertainty
reduction as well as risk reduction.
The principle of inherently safe design aims at eliminating the sources of harm. The natural interpretation of such
a method is that we ensure that the harmful event will not
take place—if we remove the flammable substance, fire will
not occur. Naturally, we may say that the probability of a
harmful consequence is reduced. However, in most cases of
inherently safe design we are dealing with issues that are
hard to give a probabilistic treatment. Arguably, in line
with the Bayesian approach to probability, it is always
possible to assign exact probability values. Still, the very
kinds of situations referred to in Section 3 motivating
inclusion of an account of epistemic uncertainty are present
in applications of the principle of inherently safe design.
Inherently safe design is best viewed as a method for
protection against the unforeseen; it is not mainly the
worker at the assembly line putting together the same parts a hundred times a day that is in need of asymmetric parts
impossible to assemble incorrectly, but the passenger in a
burning lower deck compartment trying to assemble the
fire extinguisher. (Naturally, the worker in the assembly
line also needs help not to make mistakes; primarily in the
cases where she is tired, ill or absent-minded, i.e., the cases
hardest to treat probabilistically.) The principle of inherently safe design is a way to decrease the uncertainty about
whether harmful events will take place. The soundness of
the principle even when (meaningful) probability estimates
are difficult or impossible to obtain can be seen as an
application of the understanding of safety as uncertainty
reduction as well as risk reduction.
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