Conditional Proceeding Under Documented Uncertainty Invoked as Counterfactual
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/88#Conditional_Proceeding_Under_Documented_Uncertainty_Invoked_as_Counterfactual
Properties
Instance of
ConditionalProceedingUnderDocumentedUncertainty
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#ConditionalProceedingUnderDocumentedUncertainty
Applied to
Decision whether to proceed with tidal crossing design without specialized analysis
Balancing with
Climate-Informed Infrastructure Design Standard
Public Welfare Paramount
Concrete expression
Had Engineer A been professionally comfortable predicting that significant public health, safety, and welfare impacts were unlikely, Engineer A could have ethically proceeded with the project while documenting that judgment in writing and noting in public statements that more detailed analysis would be required to confirm it — but this conditional permission does not apply given the facts presented
Confidence
0.85
Importance
medium
Interpretation
The conditional permission to proceed under documented uncertainty is not available to Engineer A in this case because the facts indicate that Engineer A cannot form a professional judgment that significant harm is unlikely — the condition precedent for the permission is not satisfied
Invoked by
Engineer A Tidal Crossing Infrastructure Design Engineer
Tension resolution
The conditional permission to proceed is bounded by the engineer's honest professional assessment; where the engineer cannot form a judgment that significant harm is unlikely, the permission does not apply and the full escalation obligation is triggered
Source Evidence
Source text
The outcome of this case might have been different had Engineer A been comfortable with predicting that significant public health, safety, and welfare impacts were unlikely, in which case Engineer A might have ethically been able to proceed while noting both in writing and in public statements that more detailed analysis would be required to confirm that judgment.
Text references
The outcome of this case might have been different had Engineer A been comfortable with predicting that significant public health, safety, and welfare impacts were unlikely, in which case Engineer A might have ethically been able to proceed while noting both in writing and in public statements that more detailed analysis would be required to confirm that judgment. However, with the facts as presented, Engineer A should engage Client B in discussions about the need for the detailed evaluation...
TTL
@prefix case88: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/88#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case88:Conditional_Proceeding_Under_Documented_Uncertainty_Invoked_as_Counterfactual a proeth:ConditionalProceedingUnderDocumentedUncertainty,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Conditional Proceeding Under Documented Uncertainty Invoked as Counterfactual" ;
proeth:appliedto "Decision whether to proceed with tidal crossing design without specialized analysis" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Climate-Informed Infrastructure Design Standard",
"Public Welfare Paramount" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Had Engineer A been professionally comfortable predicting that significant public health, safety, and welfare impacts were unlikely, Engineer A could have ethically proceeded with the project while documenting that judgment in writing and noting in public statements that more detailed analysis would be required to confirm it — but this conditional permission does not apply given the facts presented" ;
proeth:confidence "0.85" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "88" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-26T00:19:27.254437+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "88" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-26T00:19:27.254437+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "medium" ;
proeth:interpretation "The conditional permission to proceed under documented uncertainty is not available to Engineer A in this case because the facts indicate that Engineer A cannot form a professional judgment that significant harm is unlikely — the condition precedent for the permission is not satisfied" ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer A Tidal Crossing Infrastructure Design Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Conditional Proceeding Under Documented Uncertainty" ;
proeth:sourcetext "The outcome of this case might have been different had Engineer A been comfortable with predicting that significant public health, safety, and welfare impacts were unlikely, in which case Engineer A might have ethically been able to proceed while noting both in writing and in public statements that more detailed analysis would be required to confirm that judgment." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The conditional permission to proceed is bounded by the engineer's honest professional assessment; where the engineer cannot form a judgment that significant harm is unlikely, the permission does not apply and the full escalation obligation is triggered" ;
proeth:textreferences "The outcome of this case might have been different had Engineer A been comfortable with predicting that significant public health, safety, and welfare impacts were unlikely, in which case Engineer A might have ethically been able to proceed while noting both in writing and in public statements that more detailed analysis would be required to confirm that judgment. However, with the facts as presented, Engineer A should engage Client B in discussions about the need for the detailed evaluation..." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 88 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-26T00:31:11.070636"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 88 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
88
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-02-26T00:19:27.254437+00:00
First case
88
Generated
2026-02-26T00:19:27.254437+00:00
Attributed to
Case 88 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-26T00:31:11.070636
Generated by
ProEthica Case 88 Extraction