Synthesis philosophica, Vol. 40 No. 1, 2025.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21464/sp40107
Knowledge Avoidance – Consistency, Taxonomy, and Etiology
Tomaž Grušovnik
orcid.org/0000-0002-5418-1674
; University of Primorska, Faculty of Education, Cankarjeva 5, SI–6000 Koper
Abstract
Often the obstacle to the advancement of knowledge is our reluctance to accept new ideas. Active ignorance thus also plays an important role in unethical behavior. Yet, despite being widely recognized as a major factor in moral misconduct across the ethical spectrum, knowledge avoidance is plagued by a lack of clarity about the precise nature and characteristics of the epistemic phenomena it encompasses. First, these phenomena appear to be contradictory, since avoidance usually requires knowledge of what is to be avoided, and thus avoidance of knowledge seems impossible. Second, knowledge avoidance seems to be an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of different doxastic states. And third, the reasons and motivations for knowledge avoidance seem to encompass biological factors as well as ontological and psychological aspects. Drawing on both traditional and contemporary philosophical literature, the present paper aims to shed light on all these faces of knowledge avoidance by exploring problems related to its consistency, taxonomy, and etiology. The essay concludes with an examination of the moral dimensions of these phenomena. It explores the problem of responsibility and culpability, and even the potential benefits of knowledge avoidance.
Keywords
knowledge avoidance; willful ignorance; denialism; biased belief formation; culpability
Hrčak ID:
332056
URI
Publication date:
11.6.2025.
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