Passion for Ignorance: What We Choose Not to Know and Why

Renata Salecl's book "The Passion for Ignorance" explores the human capacity to ignore inconvenient or traumatic information, arguing that it can have positive and negative effects. She challenges assumptions about expertise and ignorance and suggests that by addressing the role of ignorance in society, we can reclaim the role of knowledge.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 208 pages
\n Publication date: 29 September 2020
\n Publisher: Princeton University Press
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Ignorance, whether passive or active, conscious or unconscious, has always been a part of the human condition, as Renata Salecl argues. However, what has changed in our post-truth, post-industrial world is the overwhelming flood of information and misinformation that we often feel overwhelmed by. It sometimes seems impossible to differentiate between truth and falsehood, leading to a backlash against the idea of expertise and a rise in the number of people actively choosing not to know. The dangers of this are obvious, but Salecl challenges our assumptions by arguing that there may also be a positive side to ignorance and that by addressing the role of ignorance in society, we may also be able to reclaim the role of knowledge.

Drawing on philosophy, social and psychoanalytic theory, popular culture, and her own experience, Salecl explores how the passion for ignorance plays out in many different aspects of life today, from love, illness, trauma, and the fear of failure to genetics, forensic science, big data, and the incel movement. She concludes that ignorance is a complex phenomenon that can, on occasion, benefit individuals and society as a whole.

The result is a fascinating investigation of how the knowledge economy became an ignorance economy, what it means for us, and what it tells us about the world today.

\n Weight: 378g\n
Dimension: 149 x 225 x 20 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780691195605\n \n