I guess most people have heard Donald Rumsfeld's famous quote:
Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know.
Rumsfeld was talking about knowledge. However, when talking of agnotology we are turning this on its head: we are talking about mistruths and ignorance which have been introduced into a culture, deliberately or otherwise. The term was The term was coined by Robert N. Proctor; there is more detail at Wikipedia.
An example of this is the knowledge that many teenagers have about sex and sexuality. Sharee Umpierre (University of Puerto Rico) and others recently won the 2008 Ignoble Award for Chemistry after the demonstrated that cola-based sparkling beverages do not have an effect on sperm motility when used as a vaginal douche post-coitus and thus is not suitable as a prophylactic technique for pregnancy (Effect of 'Coke' on sperm motility, Umpierre et al, 1985). Indeed, the research also suggested that using the drink in that way would likely affect vaginal pH and thus create an environment in which a yeast infection is more likely to take hold. And yet Coke douching is something that many teenagers "know" about, purely through word of mouth. This is an example of folk ignorance, and is not, in my opinion, the subject of agnotological discourse.
True agnotological phenomena arise as a result of the deliberate effort to spread ignorance, and therefore have deleterious effects on cultural knowledge and welfare. The best example of the deliberate spreading of ignorance is perpetrated by the Discovery Institute who spend a lot of their time spreading misinformation about the origins of life and basic biology. However, even the respected head of an international religion, Pope Benedict XVI, spreads misinformation on the role of condoms in the fight against HIV. Telling people that condoms do not work not only increases the ambient levels of ignorance, but also has the potential to cause social harm by increasing the incidence of HIV.
The only way to counter agnotological phenomena is by identifying and challenging ignorance and those who propagate it. The aim of this blog is to identify examples of agnotological phenomena and to attempt to correct the knowledge, and to draw attention to people and organisations who deliberately promote ignorance for their own ends.
