Lorenzo Zucca (King's College London – The Dickson Poon School of Law) has posted The Art of Navigating Uncertainty: Norms, Nature, and Poetic Wisdom on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
In an age dominated by algorithmic precision and techno-scientific promises of control, this lecture argues for the enduring importance of poetic wisdom in confronting the deep uncertainties that shape human existence. Drawing from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Shylock, and Prospero, the paper explores the limitations of philosophical, legal, and technological “certainty projects.” Through a re-reading of Dante’s Ulysses and Shakespeare’s King Lear, it advances the idea that uncertainty is not a flaw to be engineered away but a vital condition of freedom, creativity, and ethical judgment. Poetic wisdom—defined as the capacity to “see feelingly”—is presented as an essential method for navigating complexity and ambiguity in law, politics, and life. The lecture concludes by urging legal scholars and practitioners to embrace a jurisprudence that combines reason and imagination, precision and empathy, acknowledging that our most profound insights often emerge not in spite of uncertainty, but because of it.