The Profession of Ignorance

The Profession of Ignorance PDF Author: Martin McAvoy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The Profession of Ignorance provides a readable discussion in dialogue form of the philosophy of "ignorance" as practiced by Socrates, who claimed a kind of knowledge of ignorance as human wisdom. Martin McAvoy shows that understanding this profession of ignorance is essential to understanding the character of Plato's Socrates. He begins by explaining that to comprehend this concept, Socrates' repeated claim that he is ignorant must be believed. In claiming this ignorance, Socrates claims a kind of knowledge. This knowledge of ignorance is the central paradox of Socrates' wisdom, generating his mission and elenchus. McAvoy presents the concept of thinking as a dialogue between knowledge and ignorance. In this dialogue, one asks as if ignorant, and one answers as if knowing. This very form questions the reality of knowledge. McAvoy questions the nature of knowledge, since it appears that one can not be sure exactly what is knowledge, but can recognize that it exists, though always ignorant of precisely what it is. He acknowledges and utilizes the presence of a double irony, that in an important sense, makes the profession of ignorance sincere. The use of the dialogue form reflects this double irony, and exhibits McAvoy's profession of ignorance as a claim to knowledge, just as in the case of Plato's.

The Profession of Ignorance

The Profession of Ignorance PDF Author: Martin McAvoy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book

Book Description
The Profession of Ignorance provides a readable discussion in dialogue form of the philosophy of "ignorance" as practiced by Socrates, who claimed a kind of knowledge of ignorance as human wisdom. Martin McAvoy shows that understanding this profession of ignorance is essential to understanding the character of Plato's Socrates. He begins by explaining that to comprehend this concept, Socrates' repeated claim that he is ignorant must be believed. In claiming this ignorance, Socrates claims a kind of knowledge. This knowledge of ignorance is the central paradox of Socrates' wisdom, generating his mission and elenchus. McAvoy presents the concept of thinking as a dialogue between knowledge and ignorance. In this dialogue, one asks as if ignorant, and one answers as if knowing. This very form questions the reality of knowledge. McAvoy questions the nature of knowledge, since it appears that one can not be sure exactly what is knowledge, but can recognize that it exists, though always ignorant of precisely what it is. He acknowledges and utilizes the presence of a double irony, that in an important sense, makes the profession of ignorance sincere. The use of the dialogue form reflects this double irony, and exhibits McAvoy's profession of ignorance as a claim to knowledge, just as in the case of Plato's.

The Cambridge Companion to Socrates

The Cambridge Companion to Socrates PDF Author: Donald R. Morrison
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521833426
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
Essays from a diverse group of experts providing a comprehensive guide to Socrates, the most famous Greek philosopher.

The Power of Ignorance

The Power of Ignorance PDF Author: Dave Trott
Publisher: Harriman House Limited
ISBN: 085719836X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
“The wise man knows he doesn’t know. The fool doesn’t know he doesn’t know.” Lao Tzu “In the West they only respect experts. But the expert mind is the closed mind.” Shunryu Suzuki What’s the most important step in fixing a puncture? It isn’t jacking up the car, or taking the wheel off, or finding the puncture. There’s something more fundamental than any of those. Something without which you can’t even begin to fix a puncture. The most important step is finding out you’ve got a puncture. Without that you can’t do anything. Instead of saying, “It’s just a bit bumpy, must be the road,” and carrying on, you must acknowledge that something has changed and you don’t know what that is. If you don’t admit you don’t know what’s happening, you can never find out. If you don’t find out, you can never change it. The most important step, always, is admitting you don’t know. That’s the power of ignorance. In this latest collection of real-life stories, Dave Trott provides lessons about problem solving and creative thinking that can be applied in advertising, business, and the wider world. With his trademark wit, wisdom and critical eye, he shows how great problem solvers and creative thinkers are those who are not afraid to say “I don’t know.”

On the Heels of Ignorance

On the Heels of Ignorance PDF Author: Owen Whooley
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022661641X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Psychiatry has always aimed to peer deep into the human mind, daring to cast light on its darkest corners and untangle its thorniest knots, often invoking the latest medical science in doing so. But, as Owen Whooley’s sweeping new book tells us, the history of American psychiatry is really a record of ignorance. On the Heels of Ignorance begins with psychiatry’s formal inception in the 1840s and moves through two centuries of constant struggle simply to define and redefine mental illness, to say nothing of the best way to treat it. Whooley’s book is no antipsychiatric screed, however; instead, he reveals a field that has muddled through periodic reinventions and conflicting agendas of curiosity, compassion, and professional striving. On the Heels of Ignorance draws from intellectual history and the sociology of professions to portray an ongoing human effort to make sense of complex mental phenomena using an imperfect set of tools, with sometimes tragic results.

Knowledge and Ignorance of Self in Platonic Philosophy

Knowledge and Ignorance of Self in Platonic Philosophy PDF Author: James M. Ambury
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781316635728
Category : Self-knowledge, Theory of
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
"If any evidence were needed of a revived interest in Plato's treatment of self-knowledge and self-ignorance, the bibliography at the back of this volume should be evidence enough. Papers, monographs, and symposia on the topic are increasingly thick on the ground"--

Epistemologies of Ignorance in Education

Epistemologies of Ignorance in Education PDF Author: Erik Malewski
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1617353477
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Epistemologies of Ignorance provide educators a distinct epistemological view on questions of marginalization, oppression, relations of power and dominance, difference, philosophy, and even death among our youth. The authors of this edited collection challenge the ambivalence – ignorance – found in the construction of curriculum, teaching practices, research guidelines, and policy mandates in our schools. Further, ignorance is also considered a necessary by- product of knowledge production. In this sense, the authors explore not only issues of complicity but also issues of oppression in spite of educators’ liberatory intentions. While this is the first systematic effort to transfer epistemologies of ignorance to the educational scene, this movement has its roots in race, class, gender, and sexuality studies, particularly the work of Charles Mills, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Shannon Sullivan, and Nancy Tuana. It is our unequivocal belief that, while this is transformative and powerful scholarship, the study of ignorance remains understudied and under-theorized in education scholarship, from curriculum studies and cultural foundations to science education and educational psychology. This collection highlights without apology why this dangerous state of affairs cannot continue.

Perspectives on Ignorance from Moral and Social Philosophy

Perspectives on Ignorance from Moral and Social Philosophy PDF Author: Rik Peels
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317369548
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
This edited collection focuses on the moral and social dimensions of ignorance—an undertheorized category in analytic philosophy. Contributors address such issues as the relation between ignorance and deception, ignorance as a moral excuse, ignorance as a legal excuse, and the relation between ignorance and moral character. In the moral realm, ignorance is sometimes considered as an excuse; some specific kind of ignorance seems to be implied by a moral character; and ignorance is closely related to moral risk. Ignorance has certain social dimensions as well: it has been claimed to be the engine of science; it seems to be entailed by privacy and secrecy; and it is widely thought to constitute a legal excuse in certain circumstances. Together, these contributions provide a sustained inquiry into the nature of ignorance and the pivotal role it plays in the moral and social domains.

Miseducation

Miseducation PDF Author: A. J. Angulo
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421419319
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
By investigating how laws, myths, national aspirations, and global relations have recast and, at times, distorted the key purposes of education, this pathbreaking book sheds light on the role of ignorance in shaping ideas, public opinion, and policy.--Robert N. Proctor, author of Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition "Historical Studies in Education/Revue d'histoire de l'éducation"

The Power of Ignorance

The Power of Ignorance PDF Author: Chris Gibbs
Publisher: Brindle and Glass
ISBN: 1897142854
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
Join certified Ig-master Vaguen on the road to bliss. You might think that ignorance comes naturally, but on the contrary, the world conspires to cram our heads full of useless and dangerous know-ledge every day. Fall off this know-ledge into the safe and comforting world of oblivio(n/ousness) by discovering The Power of Ignorance. In his seminars, Vaguen has helped successful people, wealthy people, good-looking people, and people just like you to attain the heights/depths of ignorance. For the first time, his secrets are revealed between the covers of a book. Purchase this reasonably-priced volume and join the ranks of those who understand that a lack of understanding is unimportant. Based on original material and characters by Jeff Sumerel and Sam Reynolds.

Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance

Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance PDF Author: Shannon Sullivan
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791480038
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Offering a wide variety of philosophical approaches to the neglected philosophical problem of ignorance, this groundbreaking collection builds on Charles Mills's claim that racism involves an inverted epistemology, an epistemology of ignorance. Contributors explore how different forms of ignorance linked to race are produced and sustained and what role they play in promoting racism and white privilege. They argue that the ignorance that underpins racism is not a simple gap in knowledge, the accidental result of an epistemological oversight. In the case of racial oppression, ignorance often is actively produced for purposes of domination and exploitation. But as these essays demonstrate, ignorance is not simply a tool of oppression wielded by the powerful. It can also be a strategy for survival, an important tool for people of color to wield against white privilege and white supremacy. The book concludes that understanding ignorance and the politics of such ignorance should be a key element of epistemological and social/political analyses, for it has the potential to reveal the role of power in the construction of what is known and provide a lens for the political values at work in knowledge practices.