agnotology
📖 Definitions
"a methodological tool that Robert N. Proctor has called “agnotology”—the study of culturally-induced ignorances—that serves as a counterweight to more traditional concerns for epistemology. Agnotology refocuses questions about “how we know” to include questions about what we do not know, and why not. Ignorance is often not merely the absence of knowledge but an outcome of cultural and political struggle. Nature, after all, is infinitely rich and variable. What we know or do not know at any one time or place is shaped by particular histories, local and global priorities, funding patterns, institutional and disciplinary hierarchies, personal and professional myopia, and much else as well" (Schiebinger 2004, 3).
💡 Examples
- Nontransfer of knowledge about abortifacients in 18th century colonial botany
🔗 Relations
- equivalent to: epistemologies of ignorance