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By Robert N. Proctor

What do not we all know, and why do not we all know it? What retains lack of understanding alive, or permits it for use as a political device? Agnotology—the learn of ignorance—provides a brand new theoretical point of view to develop conventional questions about "how we all know" to invite: Why do not we all know what we do not be aware of? The essays assembled in Agnotology convey that lack of information is frequently greater than simply a lack of information; it could possibly even be the end result of cultural and political struggles. lack of awareness has a historical past and a political geography, yet there also are issues humans don't need you to understand ("Doubt is our product" is the tobacco slogan). person chapters deal with examples from the geographical regions of world weather switch, army secrecy, woman orgasm, environmental denialism, local American paleontology, theoretical archaeology, racial lack of understanding, and extra. The objective of this quantity is to raised know the way and why numerous varieties of understanding don't turn out to be, or have disappeared, or became invisible.

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