Active Ignorance, Epistemic Others, and Epistemic Friction

Abstract

Focusing on racial and sexual oppression and their interrelation, chapter 1 provides an analysis of active ignorance and of three epistemic vices that support it: epistemic arrogance, laziness, and closed-mindedness. I argue that structural active ignorance can be corrected only by developing epistemic virtues such as epistemic humility, curiosity/diligence, and open-mindedness. I further argue that the overcoming of active ignorance requires beneficial epistemic friction in interactions with significantly different epistemic others, and I offer two regulative principles for achieving such friction: the principle of acknowledgment and engagement, and the principle of epistemic equilibrium.