I have a query in regard to a paper I am writing. We know that the
explicit distinction between risk and uncertainty is found in Frank
Knight's "Risk, Uncertainty and Profit" first published in 1921. What
I would like to know is whether this explicit distinction is found
amongst economists before its use by Knight, whether the term
"uncertainty" was used by economists prior to Knight's use, and
whether the concepts surrounding uncertainty have an older provenance
in the economic literature under a different name.
I might just note that Heisenberg did not publish his own paper on
the Uncertainty Principle until 1927. The explicit use of
"uncertainty" in economics predates its use by physicists.
Steven Kates