An analysis of the category of ignorance as it appears in the work of functional and so-called organic theorists yields the concepts of indirection, intermediacy, attractiveness of intermediates, the ignorance-knowledge compound, and the transmutation mechanism. These concepts are demonstrably relevant outside the fields of theoretical concern from which they are originally developed. "Heuristic" bias toward exploring ignorance as "eufunctional" phenomenon leads to a tentative presentation of some conditions under which ignorance may be agreed to be eufunctional by the "democratically" inclined. Recognition of the circumstance that ignorance can be eufunctional poses problems for social scientists who believe in "reason"--problems, however, that may not be insoluble.