The 9 types of ignorance and their characteristics

Despite the fact that the word ignorance is usually conceived as a negative or pejorative term, since Nobody would like to be considered ignorant, the truth is that we are all ignorant about something. Furthermore, as we will see later in this article, there are various types of ignorance.

We can find the following types of ignorance: excused ignorance, presumptuous ignorance, inevitable, the rational, the guilty, the conjectural, the desired, the pluralistic and, finally, the learned ignorance.

In this article We will see the types of ignorance and their most characteristic aspects.

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What is ignorance?

The word ignorance, (from the verb "to ignore", from the Latin ignore, 'not to know'; negative derivative of the root gnō- from (g) noscere, 'to know'), is a concept widely used when referring to the lack of knowledge, know-how or even experience, being a term commonly used in different fields (p. g., pedagogical, philosophical, legal, etc.).

According to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), the word ignorance has the following meanings:

• The quality of the ignorant.
• A lack of knowledge.

In addition, the RAE also includes the definition of different types of ignorance depending on the field to which it refers. These definitions would be the ones that we will briefly discuss below.

On the one hand there is the "invincible ignorance". This concept is used when talking about the ignorance that a person has about something, for not having reason or reason to distrust it.

On the other hand, the "ignorance of law", which is used to refer to ignorance of the law, although this does not excuse anyone due to that governs the presumption or legal fiction that, having been promulgated, everyone must know it.

Finally, we find the “supine ignorance”, that coming from negligence in inquiring or attending to what can and should be known; that is to say, it would be ignorance about what can and should be known, so that it could be considered as the inability taken to the extreme to understand a certain matter.

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The different types of ignorance

Ignorance could be considered as a fundamental fact that serves as a starting point for us to be aware that we are not perfect and that no matter how much we strive to learn and try to acquire new knowledge throughout our lives, there will always be many things that will escape our knowledge.

Therefore, we should not be ashamed of not having any knowledge regarding various topics, since that is something that It happens to everyone and perhaps it is wiser to admit our ignorance and assume our doubts than to try to hide it. In these types of situations, it may be more useful for us to affirm our lack of knowledge and thus open a new door to new learning that another person who has more knowledge could provide us with. regard.

Next we will see what are the different types of ignorance that we can find in the human being. This classification could serve to demonstrate that no one has absolute knowledge about all things, since we are all ignorant regarding various topics, nor there is also no person who is completely ignorant, because we have all been acquiring knowledge in certain areas or in relation to certain topics.

1. excusing ignorance

The first of the types of ignorance that we are going to talk about would be excused ignorance, an ignorance that occurs involuntarily. and with total ignorance, or even without capacity, since the person who has that type of ignorance with respect to a given topic or issue is not aware of it.

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2. presumptuous ignorance

Another of the most common types of ignorance is what is known as presumptuous ignorance, a concept that refers to those cases in which a person presumes knowledge about something that he does not know; In other words, it would be the attitude of denying the possibility of knowing something within those fields where his methodology is epistemologically speaking unacceptable.

3. guilty ignorance

In this case we would be talking about one of the types of ignorance resulting from self-deception, a way to avoid certain responsibilities that could be morally inadmissible in certain circumstances and is that, when referring to culpable ignorance, we would be fundamentally dealing with some moral issue of great relevance.

4. rational ignorance

Rational ignorance would be another of the main types of ignorance and refers to the acceptance of ignorance, in those cases in which it is eminently rational. For this reason, in this type of case and in certain circumstances, this type of ignorance is covered with the veil of indifference.

An example of rational ignorance would be the following: "I consider myself ignorant on issues of various subjects such as physics or artificial intelligence, since what I studied was not related to those subjects".

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5. learned ignorance

This type of ignorance refers to the fact that if a person managed to know his own capacity for ignorance, he would therefore be more learned, so that knowledge would consist of a certain comparison between what is familiar or known and what is unknown to that person.

Therefore, we could say that this would be one of the types of ignorance that would refer rather to an intellectual disposition than to a cluster or set. of knowledge and that is why learned ignorance is observed as that disposition or ability to recognize the limitations of all rational knowledge.

6. conjectural ignorance

When we talk about conjectural ignorance, we are referring to that set of formulations, hypotheses or conjectures about reality that will later be subjected to the test of their probable falsification, which is that experimental procedure that could deny our initial idea.

In this sense, it could be said that the solutions that we provide regarding a particular problem or situation with in reality simple tentative conjectures that could be challenged and even replaced by other alternative solutions, with the possibility that the other solutions would be more suitable.

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7. the inevitable ignorance

A very curious phenomenon that usually occurs is that as a person increases his knowledge with the passage of time and, above all, when it comes to a field that is related to their interests or their profession, their astonishment tends to be greater when faced with what is unknown. In addition, this could cause that person to tend to take refuge in the field of learned ignorance, thus managing to recognize his own capacity and his limitations.

And it is that the specialization in a profession and/or in some fields or areas of knowledge, as it requires a lot of effort and a lot of time dedication, can bring with it an increase or at least the maintenance of ignorance or lack of knowledge in other fields or areas.

8. The dear ignorance

Dear ignorance would be another of the types of ignorance that has been talked about the most, and that is why we have decided to include it in this classification. This type of ignorance is related to the fact that there are things that we do not know, mainly because There are certain things that we actually prefer not to know. or not being aware of something.

This is what usually happens with regard to issues that we find very sad, unpleasant or worrying; having considered that it is useless for us to worry about them because we are aware that we will not be able to solve them and knowing more details or receiving more information about it, we believe that we will only be able to be more worried.

9. Pluralistic ignorance

Finally, among the different types of ignorance we want to include pluralistic ignorance, a process that has been quite studied in the field of social psychology because it usually involves a set or group of people (p. g., members of an association, a group of co-workers, a group of students, etc.).

Pluralistic ignorance usually occurs when within a set or group of people, each one of them thinks that the others have more information than they do about a situation or matter and, therefore, they also have it in the face of a doubtful or uncertain event. For this reason, each of these people is dedicated to observing the behavior of the rest in order to make an analysis and interpretation that is as correct as possible without realizing that others may not be sure that they are doing it or not. correct.

That is why all the members of the group could be getting carried away by what the others do. This process can also often lead to inaction when resolving certain problems and could also cause a decrease in the productivity of a group of people who work in a group.