Philip Tetlock

Philip E. Tetlock (born 1954) is a Canadian psychologist and political science writers, and currently the Annenberg University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Quotes

• beliefs are hypotheses to be tested, not treasures to be guarded.
  • Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner (2015). Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction. McClelland & Stewart. p. 127. ISBN 078-0-7710-7052-5 . 

• How you think matters more than what you think.
  • Philip Tetlock, quoted in: Stewart Brand (2010). Whole Earth Discipline. p. 124

• The intellectually aggressive hedgehogs knew one big thing and sought, under the banner of parsimony, to expand the explanatory power of that big thing to “cover” new cases; the more eclectic foxes knew many little things and were content to improvise ad hoc solutions to keep pace with a rapidly changing world.
  • In: Justin Fox. "How to Be Bad at Forecasting," in Harvard Business Review, May 11, 2012.
  • About prediction and forecasting. Fox commented that "psychologist Philip Tetlock (following the lead of Isaiah Berlin), divided the world of political forecasters into hedgehogs and foxes."

About

• Philip Tetlock has just produced a study which suggests we should view expertise in political forecasting--by academics or intelligence analysts, independent pundits, journalists or institutional specialists--with the same skepticism that the well-informed now apply to stockmarket forecasting... It is the scientific spirit with which he tackled his project that is the most notable thing about his book, but the findings of his inquiry are important and, for both reasons, everyone seriously concerned with forecasting, political risk, strategic analysis and public policy debate would do well to read the book.
  • Paul Monk, Australian Financial Review, cited in: Philip E. Tetlock. Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know?, 2015. Back cover.