The Epistemology of Ignorance

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

This course will invert the traditional epistemological focus on knowledge, and look instead at lack of knowledge: Why don't we know the things we don't know? How and why is ignorance produced and sustained? Is ignorance ever an epistemic or moral good? How do some potential epistemic contributions get systematically silenced? We will pay special attention to the role and production of ignorance in scientific practice, as well as to the ways in which ignorance serves as an integral part of epistemological systems upholding sexism, racism, and other ideologies of oppression.