Sociology of scientific ignorance
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The sociology of scientific ignorance (SSI) is the study of
When studying ignorance in scientific research, the common standpoint is that ignorance can be used as a tool in science. An example of this is blackboxing, which is the notion that it can be beneficial to hide the internal parts of a system, and only make the input and output visible to the user.
Studies of public ignorance of science focuses on how scientific ignorance can affect society, the public view of science, and what can give rise to public ignorance of science. This area is related to
Ignorance in scientific research
Generally, the word ignorance has a negative tone to it, and for a long time scientific ignorance was viewed as a purely negative thing. Recently, however, people have started to abandon this idea, and instead try to find uses of deliberate ignorance.[2] This has generally been called useful ignorance. A first step in finding uses of ignorance is realizing that ignorance is inevitable. As Matthias Gross says: "new knowledge also means more ignorance".[3] Gross also talks about the connection between ignorance and surprise. Surprise can reveal what scientists are ignorant of, which help them focus their research in order to gain knowledge. On the other hand, ignorance is what gives rise to surprise, making the two very connected.
Ignorance mobilization
In correspondence with
Specified ignorance
Specified ignorance is the notion of non-knowledge that the scientists are aware of, and must change into knowledge in order to gain knowledge of something else. "The express recognition of what is not yet known but needs to be known in order to lay the foundation for still more knowledge".[5] This can help scientist direct their research, in that it shows what pre-studies needs to be done, before doing the main research.
Public ignorance of science
This division of SSI is generally looking at the causes of public ignorance of science, as well as the impact it can have on scientific research and society. One way of categorizing the causes of ignorance uses the following three categories:[6]
- Deliberate choice, due to not being interested.
- Division of labour, meaning that it's not relevant to one's job.
- Mental constitution, that is having a non-scientific mind.
Studies have also been done that focus heavily on the
See also
- Agnotology
- Antiscience
- Black box
- Philosophy of social science
- Public awareness of science
- Science, technology and society
- Science studies
- Sociology of knowledge
- Sociology of scientific knowledge
References
- S2CID 145791904.
- S2CID 41431716.
- ISBN 9780262013482.
- ^ Gaudet, Joanne; Young, Nathan; Gross, Matthias (28 May 2012). "Ignorance is Power: Science in Practice, Epistemic Mobilization Dynamics" (PDF). Ignorance mobilization. Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
- .
- ISBN 0-521-43268-5. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
- S2CID 29578804. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
Further reading
- Gross, Matthias; McGoey, Linsey (2015). Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance Studies. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-71896-7.
- Gigerenzer, Gerd and Garcia-Retamero, Rocio. Cassandra's Regret: The Psychology of Not Wanting to Know (March 2017), Psychological Review, 2017, Vol. 124, No. 2, 179–196. Paper proposes a regret theory of deliberate ignorance. A summary discussion of the paper on the website of the American Psychological Association (APA).