Library:Agnotology
| Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert N. Proctor & Londa Schiebinger (editors) |
| First published | 2008 |
| ISBN | — |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | Science & Space Health & Medicine |
| Tactics | Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion Propaganda Technique |
Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance is a 2008 book by Robert N. Proctor & Londa Schiebinger (editors).
Summary
Historians of science Robert Proctor and Londa Schiebinger, both at Stanford University, edited this collection of essays on "agnotology," a term Proctor coined for the study of ignorance and how it is produced.
Their central argument is that ignorance is not just an absence of knowledge. It can be manufactured deliberately, through secrecy, doubt and distraction, or produced by neglect.
Key points
- Manufactured ignorance. Essays examine how the tobacco industry and others created doubt to delay regulation.
- Climate. Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway contribute an early version of the history later expanded in Merchants of Doubt.
- Selective ignorance. Other chapters show how some knowledge is never produced because no one funds the research.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
Agnotology gives a name and framework to a pattern documented across Bullshitopedia: the deliberate production of doubt.