agnotology
May. 7th, 2014 07:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordagnotology (ag-nuh-TO-loh-jee) - n., the study of culturally induced ignorance or doubt.
Especially publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data, but also other forms of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt). This is important because, well, what you don't know can hurt you pretty badly. A counterpart to epistemology, the study of how we know things. Topics of study include climate change deniers and how knowledge of plate tectonics was censored for a decade because some evidence was classified military information as related to undersea warfare. The term was coined in 2003 by Robert N. Proctor, a historian of science and technology, from Greek roots agnÅsis, not knowing, and -ology.
---L.
Especially publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data, but also other forms of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt). This is important because, well, what you don't know can hurt you pretty badly. A counterpart to epistemology, the study of how we know things. Topics of study include climate change deniers and how knowledge of plate tectonics was censored for a decade because some evidence was classified military information as related to undersea warfare. The term was coined in 2003 by Robert N. Proctor, a historian of science and technology, from Greek roots agnÅsis, not knowing, and -ology.
---L.
