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Understanding ignorance : the surprising impact of what we don't know / Daniel R. DeNicola.
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- Book
- Author/Creator:
- DeNicola, Daniel R., author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Ignorance (Theory of knowledge).
- Knowledge, Theory of.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource
- Other Title:
- MIT Press CogNet.
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, [2017]
- System Details:
- text file
- Summary:
- Ignorance is trending. Politicians boast, "I'm not a scientist." Angry citizens object to a proposed state motto because it is in Latin, and "This is America, not Mexico or Latin America." Lack of experience, not expertise, becomes a credential. Fake news and repeated falsehoods are accepted and shape firm belief. Ignorance about American government and history is so alarming that the ideal of an informed citizenry now seems quaint. Conspiracy theories and false knowledge thrive. This may be the Information Age, but we do not seem to be well informed. In this book, philosopher Daniel DeNicola explores ignorance -- its abundance, its endurance, and its consequences.
- Contents:
- I Images of Ignorance 1
- 1 The Impact of Ignorance 3
- Public Ignorance 5
- A Culture of Ignorance 7
- Knowledge over Ignorance 9
- Understanding Ignorance 10
- The Study of Ignorance 11
- 2 Conceiving Ignorance 15
- Negative Concepts 16
- Paradox 18
- The Language of Ignorance 21
- Ways of Knowing and Not Knowing 23
- Metaphors of Ignorance 27
- II Ignorance as Place 29
- 3 Dwelling in Ignorance 31
- Ignorance as Hell or Heaven 32
- In Plato's Cave 33
- Recognizing Ignorance 34
- A Basic Typology from Rumsfeld to Zizek 39
- The Vagaries of Knowing and Not Knowing 42
- Introspection and Agnosognosia 43
- Skepticism 44
- 4 Innocence and Ignorance 47
- The Garden of Eden 48
- The Cave and the Garden 50
- The Concept of Innocence 52
- Learning and Loss 55
- Epistemic Community 57
- Places of Ignorance as Thought Experiments 59
- III Ignorance as Boundary 63
- 5 Mapping Our Ignorance 65
- Boundaries, Borders, and Maps 66
- Mapping Professional Ignorance 68
- Natural and Constructed Boundaries 70
- Locating the Boundary of the Known 71
- Borderlands and Public Ignorance 74
- 6 Constructed Ignorance 79
- Rational Nescience 80
- Strategic Ignorance 82
- Willful Ignorance 84
- Privacy and Secrecy 88
- Forbidden Knowledge 91
- Constructing Ignorance Inadvertently 94
- 7 The Ethics of Ignorance 97
- The Ethics of Belief 98
- From Possibility to Moral Necessity 100
- Epistemic Rights 103
- Epistemic Obligations 107
- Ignorance, Action, and Responsibility 111
- Epistemic Injustice and Ignorance as Privilege 112
- 8 Virtues and Vices of Ignorance 115
- The Moral Assessment of Learning 116
- Curiosity 118
- Epistemic Restraint 120
- Discretion 122
- Trust 123
- Intellectual Humility 125
- Modesty as a Virtue of Ignorance 126
- The Virtuously Ignorant Schoolmaster 129
- Epistemic Achievement 133
- IV Ignorance as Limit 135
- 9 The Limits of the Knowable 137
- Temporality 139
- Biological Limits 142
- Conceptual Limits 144
- The Limits of Science and Mathematics 147
- The End of Knowledge 149
- Omniscience 151
- Arguments from Ignorance 153
- 10 Managing Ignorance 157
- Responding to the Unknown 158
- Coping with Ignorance 160
- Transformations in the Dark 162
- Unpredictability and Commitment 163
- Chance 164
- From Possibility to Probability 167
- The Chance of Rain 172
- Other Intellectual Tools 175
- V Ignorance as Horizon 177
- 11 The Horizon of Ignorance 179
- Epistemic Luck 180
- How Learning Creates Ignorance 183
- Freedom, Creativity, and Ignorance 186
- Ignorance and the Possible 188
- Wonder and the Shepherd of Possibilities 189
- Ever More: A Conclusion 192
- Epilogue: Ignorance and Epistemology 195
- Epistemology: Context and Content 195
- Beyond Propositional Knowledge 197
- Negation and Complexity 199
- Bivalency and Scalar Gradience 202
- Discovery and Justification 203
- Individual Knowers and Epistemic Communities 204
- Epistemic Value 206
- Conclusion 208.
- Notes:
- OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.
- ISBN:
- 9780262341035
- 0262341034
- 9780262341042
- 0262341042
- OCLC:
- 1001288135
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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