Topics and Readings for Epistemology of Ignorance

October 20 Introduction

Robert Proctor, “Agnotology: A Missing Term to Descibe the Cultural Production of Ignorance (and Its Study)”, in R. Proctor and L. Schiebinger, Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance (2008).

October 27 Mapping Ignorance

Torsten Wilholt, “On Knowing What One Does Not Know: Ignorance and the Aims of Research”, in J. Kourany and M. Carrier, Science and the Production of Ignorance (2020).

Nadja El Kassar, “What Ignorance Really Is. Examining the Foundations of Epistemology of Ignorance” (2018).

Recommended: Alison Wylie, “Mapping Ignorance in Archaeology: The Advantages of Historical Hindsight”, in R. Proctor and L. Schiebinger, Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance (2008).

November 3 Ignorance as a Byproduct of Knowledge Production

Rodney G. S. Carter, “Of Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence” (2006).

Hugh Lacey, “A View of Scientific Methodology as a Source of Ignorance in Controversies about Genetically Modified Crops”, in J. Kourany and M. Carrier, Science and the Production of Ignorance (2020).

Kevin Elliott, “Selective Ignorance in Environmental Research”, in M. Gross and L. McGoey, Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance Studies (2015).

November 10 Motivated Ignorance: Individual Motives

Daniel Williams, “Motivated ignorance, rationality, and democratic politics.” (2020).

Kevin Lynch, “Willful Ignorance and Self-Deception” (2016).

November 17 Motivated Ignorance: Commercial Motives

Jon Christensen, “Smoking Out Objectivity: Journalistic Gears in the Agnotology Machine”, in R. Proctor and L. Schiebinger, Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance (2008).

David Michaels, “Manufactured Uncertainty: Contested Science and the Protection of the Public’s Health and Environment”, in R. Proctor and L. Schiebinger, Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance (2008).

Pamela Sankar and Jonathan Kahn. "BiDil: Race Medicine Or Race Marketing? Using race to gain a commercial advantage does not advance the goal of eliminating racial/ethnic disparities in health care” (2005).

Recommended: Daniel L. Kleinman and Sainath Suryanarayanan, “Agrichemicals and Honey Bee Deaths”, in M. Gross and L. McGoey, Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance Studies (2015).

Recommended: Manuela Fernández Pinto, “To Know or Better Not To: Agnotology and the Social Construction of Ignorance in Commercially Driven Research” (2017).

December 1 Motivated Ignorance: Ideological Motives

Charles Mills, “White Ignorance”, in N. Tuana and S. Sullvan, Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance (2007).

Elizabeth Spelman, “Managing Ignorance”, in N. Tuana and S. Sullvan, Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance (2007).

Nancy Tuana, “Coming to Understand: Orgasm and the Epistemology of Ignorance”, in R. Proctor and L. Schiebinger, Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance (2008).

December 9 Ignorance and Hermeneutic Injustice

Miranda Fricker, “Epistemic Injustice and the Preservation of Ignorance”, in R. Peels and M. Blaauw, The Epistemic Dimensons of Ignorance (2016).

Miriam Solomon, “Agnotology, Hermeneutical Injustice, and Scientific Pluralism: The Case of Asperger Syndrome”, in J. Kourany and M. Carrier, Science and the Production of Ignorance (2020).

Jose Medina, “Hermeneutical Injustice and Polyphonic Contextualism: Social Silences and Shared Hermeneutical Responsibilities” (2012).

December 15 Silencing and Gaslighting

Rae Langton, “Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts” (1990).

Kristie Dotston, “Tracking Epistemic Violence, Tracking Practices of Silencing” (2011).

Kate Abramson, "Turning up the Lights on Gaslighting” (2014).

December 22 Technologically Produced Ignorance: Echo Chambers and Epistemic Trash

THIS CLASS WILL MEET ONLINE OVER ZOOM

C. Thi Nguyen, “Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles” (2020).

Devon Greyson, “The Social Informatics of Ignorance” (2019).

Karen Frost-Arnold, “Epistemic Trash and Toxic Content” (2021).

Recommended: Breno R. G. Santos, “Echo Chambers, Ignorance, and Domination” (2021).

Recommended: Selene Arfini, et al, “The Diffusion of Ignorance in On-Line Communities” (2018).

January 12 Technologically Produced Ignorance: The Problem of Epistemic Authority

Regina Rini, “Fake News and Partisan Epistemology” (2017).

Zeynep Tufekci, “It’s the (Democracy-Poisoning) Golden Age of Free Speech” (2018).

Backup plan for January 12 if we are not meeting on the 22nd:

C. Thi Nguyen, “Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles” (2020).

Karen Frost-Arnold, “Epistemic Trash and Toxic Content” (2021).

Regina Rini, “Fake News and Partisan Epistemology” (2017).

January 19 The Epistemic Benefits of Ignorance/The Epistemic Vices of Knowledge Production

Cynthia Townley, “Toward A Revaluation of Ignorance” (2006).

Janet Kourany, “Might Scientific Ignorance Be Virtuous? The Case of Cognitive Differences Research”, in J. Kourany and M. Carrier, Science and the Production of Ignorance (2020).

Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner, “The Moral Fabric of Linguicide: Un-Weaving Trauma Narratives and Dependency Relationships in Indigenous Language Reclamation” (2018).

January 26 Ignorance and Uncertainty During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Matthew Bennett, “Should I Do as I'm Told? Trust, Experts, and COVID-19.” (2020).

Stephanie Harvard and Eric Winsberg, “Causal Inference, Moral Intuition, and Modeling During a Pandemic” (2021).