The Virtues of ignorance: complexity, sustainability, and the limits of knowledge

Abstract

As our dependence on technology has increased precipitously over the past centuries, so too has the notion that we can solve all environmental problems with scientific explanations. Virtues of Ignorance: Complexity, Sustainability, and the Limits of Knowledge proposes an alternative to this dangerous worldview. The contributing authors argue that our reliance on scientific knowledge has created many of the problems that now plague the globe and that our wholesale dependence on scientific progress is both untenable and myopic. They conclude that we must simply accept that our ignorance far exceeds our knowledge and always will.Bill Vitek and Wes Jackson and a diverse group of thinkers, including Wendell Berry, Anna Peterson, and Robert Root-Bernstein, offer insights on the advantages of an ignorance-based worldview. Their essays explore the entire realm of this philosophy, from its origins and its essence to how its implementation can preserve vital natural resources for future generations. Virtues of Ignorance argues that knowledge-based worldviews are more dangerous than useful and looks ahead to determine how humans can live sustainably on Earth.