Traditionally, ignorance is understood as a form of “not knowing” that is the product of neglect and could thus be resolved with learning and education. However, over the past decade, there has been increased interest among philosophers to reconsider how we understand ignorance. Instead of viewing ignorance as a matter of neglect, some contemporary philosophers now frame ignorance as something substantive in its own right. This new framework considers ignorance as a definitively social phenomenon and aims to account for the role of social identities and modes of belief-formation that are common to experiences of ignorance. Recent studies in this field have been especially useful for thinking through contemporary political and cultural issues in the United States. In this P4L, we will consider the basic foundation for contemporary work in the in this field by working through some of its fundamental concepts and examples from Linda Alcoff, Lorraine Code, Charles Mills, and Sandra Harding.

Special Guest, Phillip Opsasnick