Agnotology

[Grant Barrett]

> On Tue, 22 Aug 2006, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>> New to me in my studied ignorance, but it seems to date back at least
>> to a book review in Science magazine in January 2005.  I wonder
>> whether it was coined by Proctor in the call for papers for an
>> October 7 and 8, 2005, conference at Stanford, "Agnotology: The
>> Cultural Production of Ignorance", co-organized by him.

A similar word is "agnoiology," defined by OED as "the doctrine of
those things of which we are necessarily ignorant; that department of
philosophy which inquires into the character and conditions of
ignorance." There's one cite to 1856. The def in the 1913 Webster's
is identical to the first sentence of the OED def.

Grant Barrett
Double-Tongued Word Wrester
http://www.doubletongued.org/
editor at doubletongued.org

The Official Dictionary of Unofficial English (May 2006, McGraw-Hill)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071458042/

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