Agnotology

Agnotology or Agnotologie called neologism a recent line of research that examines the cultural creation and maintenance of ignorance. Your object of knowledge is, as ignorance can be created or safeguarded through manipulation, suppression of information, censorship or other forms of intentional or accidental cultural policy selectivity.

The term was introduced in the context of the U.S. Stanford University. There took place in October 2005, a workshop entitled Agnotology: The Cultural Production of Ignorance instead, which was organized by the historians of science Londa Schiebinger and Robert N. Proctor. In a scientific paper sliding bingers of the same year, this Proctor cites the word creator and Agnotology as a counterweight ( counterweight ) to epistemology; Ignorance is often not the lack of knowledge, but rather the result of political, cultural and commercial battles.

For example, companies can " agnotologischen " in creating meaning ignorance, or more precisely qualify an existing one, their business interests prejudicial knowledge or pay off by them made second opinion. Paradigmatic Proctor has demonstrated this through its study on the harmfulness of cigarette smoking, the industry also for decades, pointing out that it had just been to the National Socialists, who have operated campaigns against smoking.

In a report issued jointly with Londa Schiebinger volume of essays similar processes have been described in the secret practice of the Government of the United States, the climate research and debate on genetically modified organisms.