uncertainty–indeterminacy distinction

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

The uncertainty–indeterminacy distinction separates a limit of knowledge from a world whose outcome is not yet settled. Uncertainty concerns what cannot be known or predicted; ontic indeterminacy concerns real alternatives before actualization. The corpus uses the distinction to defend structured openness while separately recognizing semantic underdetermination and formal undecidability. Those limits of an account are not automatically evidence that reality itself is open in the same way.

Explanation

PB states the contrast as not knowing an outcome versus there being no outcome yet to know. RB1’s opening gives that contrast an ontological role: real possibility is not merely an incomplete prediction. The resulting account remains constrained, so openness does not mean that any imagined event can happen or that probabilities have no stable structure.

The later taxonomy uses epistemic indeterminacy for principled limits arising from observation or cognition, alongside ontic, semantic and formal forms. This broader naming practice does not abolish the opening distinction; it requires specifying which register is intended. Interpretation-dependent weights on the quantum examples also prevent a mere terminological contrast from deciding among all physical ontologies.

PB explicitly separates openness in the world from incompleteness in an account. Likewise, the named uncertainty principle is a specific quantum restriction, not simply ordinary ignorance or a synonym for every sort of indeterminacy. The entry preserves these distinctions without deriving ontic chance from linguistic ambiguity, formal undecidability or limited measuring technology alone.

Scope and attribution

Retain the opening distinction and the later taxonomy’s broader vocabulary.

AB — The Actual Book

Structured openness differs from an unconstrained menu.

Occurrence locators: 23; Thinker register: 227.

PB — The Possible Book

Knowledge-limits and worldly openness are explicitly distinguished.

Occurrence locators: 93, 94.

RB1 — The Real Book, Volume I: The Possible Is Real

The opening contrast coexists with a later multi-register taxonomy.

Occurrence locators: 9, 46, 106, 110, 120, 121, 135.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Named theories and mechanisms are distinguished from neighboring background, homonyms and the author’s own synthesis. Reproduced AI passages retain their separate voice.