Agnotology

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The three wise monkeys (from left to right: hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil) an icon used by Proctor and Schiebinger in their 2005 conference “Agnotology: The Cultural Production of Ignorance”.

Agnotology, formerly agnatology, is a neologism for the study of culturally-induced ignorance or doubt, particularly the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data. The term was coined by Robert N. Proctor,^[1][2] a Stanford University professor specializing in the history of science and technology.^[3] Its name derives from the Greek word ἀγνῶσις, agnōsis, "not knowing"; and -λογία, -logia.^[4] More generally, the term also highlights the increasingly common condition where more knowledge of a subject leaves one more uncertain than before.

A prime example of the deliberate production of ignorance cited by Proctor is the tobacco industry's conspiracy to manufacture doubt about the cancer risks of tobacco use. Under the banner of science, the industry produced research about everything except tobacco hazards to exploit public uncertainty.^[4][5] Some of the root causes for culturally-induced ignorance are media neglect, corporate or governmental secrecy and suppression, document destruction, and myriad forms of inherent or avoidable culturopolitical selectivity, inattention, and forgetfulness.^[6]

Agnotology also focuses on how and why diverse forms of knowledge do not "come to be," or are ignored or delayed. For example, knowledge about plate tectonics was delayed for at least a decade because key evidence was classified military information related to underseas warfare.^[4]

[edit] History

Dr. Proctor was quoted using the term to describe his research "only half jokingly," as "agnatology" in a 2001 interview about his lapidary work with the colorful rock agate. He connected the two seemingly unrelated topics by noting the lack of geologic knowledge and study of agate since its first known description by Theophrastus in 300 BC, relative to the extensive research on other rocks and minerals such as diamonds, asbestos, granite, and coal, all of which have much higher commercial value. He said agate was a "victim of scientific disinterest," the same "structured apathy" he called "the social construction of ignorance."^[7]

He was later quoted as calling it "agnotology, the study of ignorance," in a 2003 New York Times story on medical historians testifying as expert witnesses.^[8] In 2004, his wife, Londa Schiebinger,^[9] also a science history professor, gave a more precise definition of agnotology in a paper on eighteenth-century voyages of scientific discovery and gender relations, and contrasted it with epistemology, the theory of knowledge, saying that the latter questions how we know while the former questions why we do not know: "Ignorance is often not merely the absence of knowledge but an outcome of cultural and political struggle."^[10]

The couple co-organized a pair of events, first a workshop at the Pennsylvania State University in 2003 titled “Agnatology: The Cultural Production of Ignorance”,^[11] and later a conference at Stanford University in 2005 titled “Agnotology: The Cultural Production of Ignorance”.^[6]

[edit] Agnoiology

A similar word from the same Greek roots, agnoiology, meaning "the science or study of ignorance, which determines its quality and conditions"^[12] or "the doctrine concerning those things of which we are necessarily ignorant"^[13] describes a branch of philosophy studied by James Frederick Ferrier in the 19th century.^[14]

[edit] See also

• Artificial controversy
• Junk science
• Obscurantism
• Political manipulation of global warming science:
  • Pressure on scientists
  • Efforts to mislead public
• The Republican War on Science
• Fear, uncertainty and doubt, or simply 'FUD', a disinformation technique using the appeal to fear

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Doubt is their product: How industry's assault on science threatens your health. London: Oxford University Press. 2008. ISBN 978-0195300673. 
• Proctor, Robert N.; Schiebinger, Londa, eds. (2008), Agnotology: The making and unmaking of ignorance, Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, ISBN 978-0804759014 
• Smithson M (1985). "Toward a social theory of ignorance". Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 20 (4): 323–346. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5914.1985.tb00049.x. 
• Proctor, Robert N. (1995). Cancer Wars: How politics shapes what we know and don't know about cancer. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0465008599. 

[edit] External links

• Agnotology: The Cultural Production of Ignorance
• Agnotology and Misology
• WordSpy citations