Acknowledgement of Ignorance

What does it mean to be ignorant?

How relevant is this concept, for an individual, and for the world?

To avoid being “ignorant” of the technical definition, Wikipedia describes; “Ignorance is a lack of knowledge. …can describe individuals who deliberately ignore or disregard important information or facts, or individuals who are unaware of important information or facts.

It seems to have 2 basic meanings;

1) Awarefully disregarding information

2) Unawareness of information

The 1st type has fairly relatable concepts and factors involved, to my previous post; Obligation via Capability. Awareness of information relevant to the particular context, is a key required component for “obligation”. If someone knowingly disregards that information, they are being “ignorant” of their obligation. Without an individual's ignorance of information that they are aware of, it seems they are not to be blamed for their obligation. In another post; Blame by Consciousness, I described how the amount of awareness of knowledge, reflects the blamability. I also described how comprehension of awareness of information, can be determined by the individual’s estimate of probability of the particular circumstances.

This means, if someone estimates a higher probability of a certain outcome, caused by their actions, then they can potentially be more to blame. This seems that it would follow with the concept of ignorance. If someone is awarefully disregarding information, it would depend on their estimate of probability of the outcome of that information. If they estimate a low percentage, that certain information will cause an outcome, then it seems they are being ignorant to a lower degree, as they were not as “aware” of the outcome. An individual's estimate of probability is ambiguous by our measuring capabilities, and basically indeterminable (at this point), but there should always be some degree of expectation by the person, for any outcome. Even if they themselves don't know the estimate, or expectation, it would still occur, and be relative to ignorance. Best estimate of their estimate, may be the best gauge to go by.

For example, someone driving a car which has had the “check engine” light on, hits a pedestrian because the brakes fail. The drivers estimate of probability of the car having significant problems, just might be relative to their potential ignorance. If the driver estimated the probability to be 80%, of the check engine light causing a dangerous problem, then their ignorance, seems it could be proportionate, at 80%. If they had estimated a 5% probability that the car would have dangerous problems, then they could be 5% ignorant.

As the 2nd type of ignorance is, being unaware of information, there seems to be less blame applicable. If there is less blame, it seems there should be less negative connotation for the term “ignorant”, in that situation. If blame insinuates that the person should have taken an alternate action, it seems logical that awareness of information should be required to take that alternate action. However, perhaps if the person had the potential to gain the relevant information, but chose not to gain the information, they could still be “blamed”. But in this case, the blamable ignorance, is focusing on a separate set of information which the individual is aware of. Instead of ignorance of the direct information at hand, they are ignorant of preceding information; that they should gain more information. It is still a prerequisite for ignorance, to have that higher estimate of probability, that gaining the further information will be useful.

These concepts should be relevant to any individuals life, as understanding how to reduce ignorance, should be a useful method of reducing consequences of the negative outcomes which follow. With the 1st type of (awareful) ignorance, someone can simply, consider more factors of information that they are aware of, which are likely to be involved in the circumstances. Additionally, regarding estimate of probability of each factor, an individual could attempt to more accurately estimate the probability of that factor, by analysing more details of cause and effect involved. Regarding the 2nd type of (unaware) ignorance, there can often be the option of choosing to learn more information ahead of time for a scenario which may potentially occur. There may always be situations where the person is lacking information, of which they would have had no reason to predict the need of, but it seems there is little blamability for this, as there is little potential to avoid it.

By understanding ignorance, those potential improvements for individuals, can be extrapolated for the entire world. If the average individual decreases the consequences of negative outcomes, by better analysing and learning relevant information, then the sum of negative outcomes on the world should also decrease. It seems it should be beneficial to apply the Acknowledgement of Ignorance.