Agnotology

[Wilson Gray]

I think that the operative phrase here is _necessarily ignorant_.
Proctor appears to have in mind various kinds of cultural con jobs
that allow people ignorantly to say things like, "I have nothing
against  those people, but ..." and still honestly believe themselves
to be free of any kind of bias whatsoever.

OTOH, there are things of which people are necessarily ignorant. For
example, I can have no idea whether my argument will persuade you.

-Wilson

On 8/23/06, Grant Barrett <gbarrett at worldnewyork.org> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Grant Barrett <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG>
> Subject:      Re: Agnotology
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > 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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