Source Of Ignorance Research Articles

From the Womb to the Cosmos: A Feminist Investigation into Porphyry's Interpretation of the Cave of the Nymphs

Abstract Porphyry wrote an interpretation of a passage from the Odyssey under the title On the Cave of the Nymphs; this passage talks about a cave sacred to the water nymphs, which has two gates. Inside the cave, there are stone amphoras where bees store honey; stone looms where sea-purple clothes are woven, and a spring from where water flows ceaselessly. Porphyry interpreted this cave as a symbol of the cosmos; however, caves represent the womb of a goddess in the matriarchal tradition. In this paper, I aim to show how patriarchal transition takes place in Porphyry's interpretation of seeing caves as a symbol of the cosmos. From a philosophical perspective, I will also show that Porphyry attributes to the noetic principle a qualification which puts matter into form, while he sees matter as the source of ignorance, an attitude that is compatible to the feminist critique of reason in which rationality is associated with masculinity rather than femininity.

The Cabinetmaker's Apprentice

The Cabinetmaker's Apprentice Jeffrey R. Di Leo (bio) When Sir Karl Popper (1902–94) was twenty years old, he became an apprentice to Adalbert Pösch, an old master cabinetmaker in Vienna. A university student at the time, Popper claims that he learned more about the theory of knowledge from this "omniscient master" than from any of his teachers. "For it was my master who taught me not only how very little I knew," wrote Popper in Unending Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography (1976), "but also that any wisdom to which I might ever aspire could consist only in realizing more fully the infinity of my ignorance." Popper worked with this omniscient cabinetmaker for two years, after which he decided that he was "too ignorant and too fallible" to make mahogany writing desks for the rest of his life. So he did social work with neglected children for a year, and then, after five more years mainly spent studying and writing, he became a schoolteacher in 1930. He says that at that point he had no other professional ambitions. Still, after the publication of The Logic of Scientific Discovery in 1935, he started to grow tired of schoolteaching. In this early book, the Austrian-British philosopher famously argued that science should adopt a methodology based on falsifiability because no number of experiments can ever prove a theory, but a reproducible experiment or observation can refute one. However, writes Popper, "non-reproducible single occurrences are of no significance to science." "Thus a few stray basic statements contradicting a theory will hardly induce us to reject it as falsified," he continues. "We shall take it as falsified only if we discover a reproducible effect which refutes the theory." This notion of falsifiability is one that Paul Ricoeur regards as similar to his own conception of "invalidation," wherein the role of falsification is played by the conflict between competing interpretations of the text. "An interpretation," writes Ricoeur in "The Model of the Text" (1971), "must not only be probable, but more probable than another." "There are criteria of relative superiority," he continues, "which may easily be derived from the logic of [End Page 1] subjective probability." According to Ricoeur, it is the falsification of Popper found in The Logic of Scientific Discovery that renders easier this derivation. Two years after the publication of The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Popper gave up schoolteaching and became a professional philosopher. He was thirty-four years old, and said, "I thought that I had now finally solved the problem of how to work on a writing desk and yet be preoccupied with epistemology." In 1960 the former cabinetmaker's apprentice delivered the Annual Philosophical Lecture to the British Academy. Popper surprised and offended some of his colleagues by entitling it "On the Sources of Knowledge and of Ignorance." While the first part of the title, "On the Sources of Knowledge," was regarded as standard fare for an epistemologist at the time, the latter part, concerning the sources "of Ignorance," was not—and raised some philosophical eyebrows. As his friend put it, "Ignorance is something negative: it is the absence of knowledge." "But," he continued, "how on earth can the absence of anything have sources?" Unsure how to respond, Popper said the following: I told him that I hoped to direct attention, through the phrasing of this title, to a number of historically important although unrecorded philosophical doctrines and among them, especially, to a conspiracy theory of ignorance which interprets ignorance not as a mere lack of knowledge but as the work of some mischievous power, the source of impure and evil influences which pervert and poison our minds and instill in us the habit of resistance to knowledge. Thus, for Popper, the sources of ignorance in the British and Continental schools of philosophy often involve conspiracy theory, which although unstated is nonetheless a consequence of their stated philosophical doctrines. As Popper sees it, "the quarrel between the classical empiricism of Bacon, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Mill," that is, the British school, and "the classical rationalism or intellectualism of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz," that is, the Continental school, is overstated. Though it is true that "the British school...

Patterns of School Preference about the Local Heritage in Medium-Size Cities of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). The Case of Ciudad Real

Context: The comprehension of patterns regarding the knowledge that grade schoolers of a certain city have, just like the facts which favor or alter this, been of great interest, as they allow one to conduct subsequent comparative analyses with groups affected by particular susceptibilities related to the place where they study in that city. Problem: The objective of the present work focuses on the knowledge of one of those patterns: The local heritage (cultural, natural, services and leisure), that a school-age population from a medium-sized city as Ciudad Real has, resolving the impact that factors such as school location, sociocultural background and age may have on the preference of that heritage. Methodology: To verify this, a sample of 200 people was taken, all of whom resided in Ciudad Real during the school year 2017/2018.Results and Conclusions: From the analysis of the results from this study, we can come to the conclusion that preference over city heritage cannot be predicted based on proximity of the participant’s school, as this is not a decisive element according to the analyzed sample. However, this study is of great interest to local authorities since it allows one to establish strategies that seek a better understanding of all the heritages of the city based on a source of ignorance.

Probing into the sources of ignorance: science teachers’ practices of constructing arguments or rebuttals to denialism of climate change

This study focuses on the nature of teachers’ arguments for and rebuttals to 10 denial theories about anthropogenic climate change that are most commonly encountered in the media and public debates. Through a semi-structured survey, the study collected data from 24 participants who are K-12 teachers in Maryland and Delaware. The deductive coding and frequency analysis of data shows that although all participants of our study agree with the importance of teaching anthropogenic climate change, some teachers agree with the denial theories of climate change. The arguments for the denial theories show less epistemic quality than the rebuttals against denial theories. Moreover, teachers went beyond the textbooks and searched for other varied sources of information. However, we noticed that teachers might still doubt the anthropogenic causes of climate change. The study further uses intertextual discourse analysis to explore the reasons why use of sources might still leave teachers confused.

TAIWAN CITIZENS' VIEWS OF CHINA: WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF CROSS-STRAIT CONTACTS?

AbstractSegregation has long been recognized as a source of ignorance which breeds negative feelings and hostility. This view maintains that interactions between members of different groups can foster social bonds and promote positive group relationship. Employing recently collected survey data, this study examines the effect of cross-Strait contacts on Taiwan citizens’ negative views toward Chinese citizens and the Beijing government. The empirical results show that casual encounters have no effect on the island residents’ general perception of China. Serious interactions in the form of friendship moderate their unfavorable feelings of Chinese citizens but have no effects on the perception of a hostile Beijing. Unless contacts can invoke true social bonds, frequent interactions do not have transformative effects on individuals’ political views. The moderating effect of contacts at the personal level is not transferable to a political entity when the latter is perceived as a suppressing agent.

Social Media, Trust, and the Epistemology of Prejudice

Ignorance of one’s privileges and prejudices is an epistemic problem. While the sources of ignorance of privilege and prejudice are increasingly understood, less clarity exists about how to remedy ignorance. In fact, the various causes of ignorance can seem so powerful, various, and mutually reinforcing that studying the epistemology of ignorance can inspire pessimism about combatting socially constructed ignorance. I argue that this pessimism is unwarranted. The testimony of members of oppressed groups can often help members of privileged groups overcome their ignorance. This paper argues that a particular type of speaker’s trust—hopeful trust—can motivate hearers to become cognizant of their privilege and prejudice. I argue that hopeful trust is a powerful way of eliciting trust-responsiveness that can be an effective mechanism for challenging privilege and prejudice. To make this case, I draw on case studies of online attempts to challenge ignorance. While the problems of testimonial injustice, defensive ignorance, and the absence of privilege-cognizant role models can be barriers to challenging ignorance, I show that acts of hopeful trust can effectively overcome these barriers. Thus, hopeful trust can be a useful tool in remedying socially constructed ignorance.

Ignorante et indocile » : Élisabeth dans ses lettres à Descartes

Depicting herself, in the correspondence with Descartes, as an “ignorant and intractable” woman, Elisabeth, Princess of Bohemia, places a high priority on the body — a body that is at once, as a source of ignorance, an obstacle to the philosophical process, and, as a reality that resists theory, an unavoidable challenge to this same process. She thus obliges the philosopher to move from a consideration of the metaphysical ego toward a consideration of the human being who will become the subject of The Passions of the Soul.

Cultivating ignorance of Aboriginal realities

The principal problem in Aboriginal education in Canada is the education of Canadians. This article exposes Canada's long history of ignorance of Aboriginal Peoples and suggests that while education may not be the source of ignorance, it is now perpetuating it. Using the Ontario secondary school curriculum as an example, this article looks at mainstream Canadian and World Studies, of which geography is an integral part, and Native Studies courses, offered in Ontario since 1999, but available for study to few young Ontarians. Curricular reforms during recent decades have removed the worst expressions of racism, but have not addressed fundamental colonial attitudes in the mainstream curriculum. As a citizenry we are complacent about a deep‐seated ignorance of the country's past and present, affecting both Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal Canadians. Lack of interest in traditional and modern Aboriginal cultures doom immigrants and established settlers to a dysfunctional relationship with the growing and increasingly internationally recognized indigenous population. As university educators and teachers of teachers, geographers must assume responsibility for promoting truthful and inclusive perceptions of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada and, in recognizing the subtle strategies of cultivating ignorance, examine how geography as it is currently taught in schools might exclude Aboriginal People and understanding.

IGNORANCE AND CULTURE: REJOINDER TO FENSTER AND CHANDLER

In the ongoing debate about the impact that studies of public ignorance should have on the study of culture, Mark Fenster and Bret Chandler assume that wider political participation must be our goal, because, to them, political ignorance is a culturally imposed, and therefore removable, obstacle—as if, without the baleful influence of culture, political participants would be well informed. Culture is indeed a primary influence on people's political opinions, so political scientists should indeed study the role it plays in the formation of political beliefs. But such studies should begin with ignorance as people's default position, and should refrain from assuming that the source of ignorance is cultural domination or manipulation.

KNOWLEDGE, PLANNING, AND MARKETS: A MISSING CHAPTER IN THE SOCIALIST CALCULATION DEBATES

This paper examines the epistemological arguments about markets and planning that emerged in a series of unpublished exchanges between Hayek and Neurath. The exchanges reveal problems for standard accounts of both the socialist calculation debates and logical empiricism. They also raise questions concerning the sources of ignorance and uncertainty in modern economies, and the role of market and non-market organisations in the distribution and coordination of limited knowledge, which remain relevant to contemporary debates in economics. Hayek had argued that Neurath's work exemplified the errors of rationalism that underpinned the socialist project. In response Neurath highlighted assumptions about the limits of reason and predictability that the two theorists shared and attempted to turn those assumptions back against Hayek in a defence of the possibility of socialist planning. The paper critically compares Neurath's and Hayek's criticisms of rationalism and considers how far Neurath is successful in his attempt to employ Hayek's assumptions against Hayek himself.

A Planter's Republic: The Search for Economic Independence in Revolutionary Virginia.

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The Political Economy of a Tobacco Colony Chapter 3 An Imperial Crisis and the Origins of Commercial Resistance Chapter 4 Nonimportation and the Chesapeake Economy Chapter 5 A Source of Ignorance and Vice: The Slave Trade and Economic Development in Virginia Chapter 6 Commercial Development and the Credit Crisis of 1772 Chapter 7 The Renewal of Commercial Resistance Chapter 8 Virginia and the Continental Association Chapter 9 Commercial Development in an Independent Virginia Chapter 10 Conclusion Chapter 11 Index

The Contact Hypothesis Revisited: Black-White Interaction and Positive Racial Attitudes

The Contact Hypothesis Revisited: Black-White Interaction and Positive Racial Attitudes

Property in Science and the Market

A central theme in recent liberal arguments for free-market has been an epistemological one. It is claimed that free market is a solution to problems of ignorance, and that there are necessary limitations to that any particular individual or subset of individuals in society can possess. Hence, there are limitations to at disposal of any central planning board in a planned economy. The economic liberal argues that in contrast to these limitations of centralized planned economies, market overcomes problems of human ignorance. There are two sources of these limitations to human that are particularly prominent in work of economic liberals. The first is what Hayek calls the division of knowledge in society?that is, dispersal of and skills throughout different individuals in society.1 Much of such takes form of practical knowledge?knowledge how rather than that?which cannot be articulated in propositional form. Hence, such cannot in principle be passed on to a cen tralized planning agency. There will be dispersed throughout society of which any particular individual or subset of individuals will be ig norant. A second source of ignorance is unpredictability of human needs and wants. This is in part a consequence of fact that an individual's needs and wants often cannot be articulated. However, it also has another basis. Needs and wants change with invention and produc tion of new objects for consumption. To quote a version of this point from a writer who is not an economic liberal:

Community health staff's prejudice and knowledge about AIDS

Health service workers' attitudes to their patients carry significant health care consequences. In order to investigate the relationships between health workers' attitudes to groups at high risk of AIDS and their knowledge of the disease and views on procedures for care, community health care workers and students completed a social distance questionnaire concerning groups defined by ethnicity, sexual proclivity, or illness. There was strong negativity towards individuals of minority sexual proclivity and AIDS high risk groups. Fear of the disease and ignorance of its transmission and effective care procedures increase with prejudice towards these groups. Analysis of their relevant prior learning experiences demonstrates the need for an educational programme which addresses the identified sources of ignorance and which also necessarily concentrates on the prejudices which serve as a barrier to effective patient care.

Characteristics of Collusive Firms

DESPITE the fact that collusion among American firms has been actively prosecuted under the antitrust laws for many years, little is known about the effects of this policy. Such ignorance is partly attributable to the problems that accompany empirical investigation. It is, quite simply, difficult to isolate the effects of any mode of business conduct on observable market phenomena. A second source of ignorance is the per se illegality of collusion under the Sherman Act. Since the existence of the offensive conduct is virtually the sole issue considered by United States courts, exploration of surrounding circumstances has been minimal. This paper attempts to shed some light by examining evidence on the characteristics of collusive firms during the period 1958-67.