Agnotology: the making and unmaking of ignorance
Item Type
Language
English
Abstract
What don't we know, and why don't we know it? What keeps ignorance alive, or allows it to be used as a political instrument? Agnotology the study of ignorance provides a new theoretical perspective to broaden traditional questions about "how we know" to ask: Why don't we know what we don't know? The essays assembled in Agnotology show that ignorance is often more than just an absence of knowledge; it can also be the outcome of cultural and political struggles. Ignorance has a history and a political geography, but there are also things people don't want you to know ("Doubt is our product" is the tobacco industry slogan). Individual chapters treat examples from the realms of global climate change, military secrecy, female orgasm, environmental denialism, Native American paleontology, theoretical archaeology, racial ignorance, and more. The goal of this volume is to better understand how and why various forms of knowing do not come to be, or have disappeared, or have become invisible.
Subject
Ignorance -- Aspect social -- Actes de congrès
Ignorance (Theory of knowledge) -- Social aspects -- Congresses
Secrecy -- Congresses
Secret -- Actes de congrès
Théorie de la connaissance -- Actes de congrès
Publication Year
2008
Publication Date
2008
Publisher
Source
Library Catalog - www.sudoc.abes.fr
License
ISBN
978-0-8047-5652-5
Link Attachment
http://www.sudoc.fr/142538876
http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=no%3A690435806
Physical Description
VIII-298 p.
Publication Place
Stanford (CA)
Short Title
Agnotology