Is safety a subject for science?

• The paper addresses the meaning of safety as a scientific subject.
• Conventionally, safety is defined by what happens when it is absent.
• But to make sense, safety should be defined by what happens when it is present.
• Safety science should therefore focus on situations where nothing goes wrong.

In this paper I will not so much address the status of safety science as a science, but rather address the status or meaning of safety. So instead of entering into a discussion of whether safety science is a proper science – whatever that means – the focus will be on whether the notion of safety itself is a proper subject for scientific investigation or indeed whether safety as such is an appropriate topic or subject for a scientific discipline.