Ignorance unmasked : essays in the new science of agnotology / edited by Robert N. Proctor and Londa Schiebinger.

Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2025]
Description
ix, 292 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Details

Subject(s)
Editor
Summary note
"We live in an age of ignorance. This book offers a guide to how we got here-and how we might escape. From obfuscations of climate science to the myriad deceptions inhering in language, Ignorance Unmasked explores how agnotology-the study of ignorance-can help us better grasp: Why don't we know what we don't know? What are the obstacles to knowledge, and how might those be overcome? Ignorance has countless agents and authors; it gets deliberately manufactured and widely disseminated. In a provocative set of essays, this book engages climate change and public health, algorithmic amplification of misinformation, deep fakes and data obsolescence, the origins of free market fundamentalism and gun industry deceptions, along with the ignorance produced by military trauma, sugar and meat agnotology, environmental malfeasance, and the forgetting of the Nakba. It helps us better understand how and why knowledge gets erased, and how rectifying such ignorance can enlarge human liberties and planetary health. Contributors: Nadia Abu El-Haj, Daniel Akselrad, Erik M. Conway, John Donohue, Hany Farid, Benjamin Franta, Peter Galison, Jennifer Jacquet, Caroline A. Jones, Robert Lustig, Naomi Oreskes, Robert N. Proctor, Rosemary Sayigh, Londa Schiebinger, and Nanna Bonde Thylstrup"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
  • Agnotology, 30 years in the making / Robert N. Proctor
  • How the most important fact of global warming has been obscured / Benjamin Franta
  • Preventing unwanted births can help mitigate climate change-while enlarging human liberties / Londa Schiebinger and Robert N. Proctor
  • AI-fueled ignorance, confusion, and profit / Hany Farid
  • On data loss and disappearance in digital societies / Nanna Bonde Thylstrup
  • Law against knowledge : anti-epistemology / Peter Galison.
ISBN
  • 9781503643406 (hardcover)
  • 1503643409 (hardcover)
  • 9781503643956 (paperback)
  • 1503643956 (paperback)
LCCN
2025003036
OCLC
1501552202
Statement on responsible collection description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...
Other views
Staff view