imponderables
Imponderabilia ( Latin imponderabilis - imponderable) are imponderable facts, e.g. B. Sensitivities , emotional and mood swings or non- quantifiable risks . The term is only used in the plural; the less often used opposite term is ponderabilia .
Origin and further details
The two terms were coined in the natural sciences in the 18th century, probably by the chemist Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier . They were used to distinguish the basic constituents of matter that could be weighed, i.e. H. of the chemical elements , of the factors that were also thought of as material at the time, but which could not be weighed, heat, positive and negative electricity, magnetism and light. It was worked out in the first half of the 19th century that these five imponderables are by no means fundamentally different original types of matter, but can transform into one another and must therefore come about through the forces acting in ponderable matter. After that, the concept of imponderables only lived on outside of natural science in its current, figurative sense.
In business administration , imponderables are understood to be influencing factors on an investment decision that are not quantifiable or only approximately quantifiable in terms of value . The principle of prudence ("principle of commercial prudence") requires that all risks and losses be adequately taken into account in accounting and accounting and, in case of doubt, to be set too high rather than too low.
literature
- Manfred Drosg: Dealing with Uncertainties: A Guide to Error Analysis. 1st edition. Facultas, 2006, ISBN 3-85076-748-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert : Attempting a Latin nomenclature for chemistry, according to electrisch-chemical views, according to Prof. Berzelius , Annalen der Physik , Volume 42, 1812 ( digitized at Google Books ).
- ↑ Armin Hermann: Dynamism - a paradigm at the beginning of the 19th century. Physikalische Blätter Vol. 37. Issue 10 (1981): pp. 322-324.