AN INTRODUCTION TO ISSUES IN HIGHER-ORDER UNCERTAINTY

The specification of appropriate procedures for making inferences in t he context of uncertain, incomplete or imprecise information is a key research issue in a variety of disciplines. Within and among these dis ciplines, great debates have occurred about the meaning and appropriat eness of various proposals for reasoning under uncertainty. At the cor e of many of these debates are disagreements as to the-appropriate mea ning of the term ''uncertainty'', the related term ''probability'', an d what it means to be unsure of one's own uncertainties. This latter i ssue, uncertainty about one's uncertainty, is commonly referred to as higher order uncertainty. This paper provides a brief overview of vari ous perspectives in higher order uncertainty.