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Ignorance as a productive response to epistemic perturbations.

This paper argues that ignorance, rather than being a result or representation of false beliefs or misinformation, is a compensatory epistemic adaptation of complex rhetoric systems. A rhetoric system is here defined as a set of interconnected rhetorical elements (beliefs, arguments, commonplaces [l...

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Published in:Synthese Vol. 198; no. 15; pp. 6491 - 6508
Main Author: Mays, Chris
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Jul2021
Subjects:
Climate change
Continuous processing
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        10.1007/s11229-019-02471-8
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        atl: Ignorance as a productive response to epistemic perturbations.
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        au: Mays, Chris
        affil: Department of English, University of Nevada, Reno, 1664 N. Virginia Street, 89557-0098, Reno, NV, USA
      su:
        Climate change
        Continuous processing
      sug:
        subj:
          Climate change
          Continuous processing
      keyword:
        Conspiracy theories
        Epistemic management
        Ignorance
        Rhetoric
        Rhetoric system
        Systems theory
        Wild systems theory
      ab: This paper argues that ignorance, rather than being a result or representation of false beliefs or misinformation, is a compensatory epistemic adaptation of complex rhetoric systems. A rhetoric system is here defined as a set of interconnected rhetorical elements (beliefs, arguments, commonplaces [loci communes], meanings, and texts) that cohere into a self-organized system that is thoroughly "about" its contexts—meaning that its own boundaries and relations are both constrained and enabled by the contexts in which it exists. Ignorance, as described here, is epistemic management that preserves the boundaries and relations of a rhetoric system, and is a way of dealing with information that runs counter to one's beliefs. Ignorance is also productive, in that it produces new knowledge that works to make rhetoric systems more resistant to potential destabilization. To elaborate these points, the paper examines discourse about the phenomenon of global climate change, which illustrates how individuals productively counter information as a way of preserving beliefs. As the paper argues, ignorance is neither a cognitive nor epistemological failure, but rather is a result of the dynamic and continuous process of enforcing epistemic and rhetorical boundaries.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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