The Sin of Science: Ignorance of Ignorance

February 19, 2021 Jeremiah Hendren

The Sin of Science: Ignorance of Ignorance

Ravetz, Jerome R.
Knowledge 15, no. 2 (1993): 157-165
https://doi.org/10.1177/107554709301500203

Science has been accused of many sins, old and new-among them, the bomb, environmental pollution, cruelty to animals, and (most recently) depriving suffering humanity of its religious opiates. Such familiar accusations of sin do not need any elaboration here. My concern is with another sort of sin, less familiar but more pervasive, and one which I consider to be deeply rooted in science as we now understand it. This is ignorance of ignorance in science, or (for brevity) "ignorance-squared." This condition has existed since the inauguration of modern science by Galileo and Descartes; and it may well have been necessary for its birth and successful development. Today, however, this ignorance-squared is unsustainable, and it may very well become destructive to the continued progress of science.

Jerome R. Ravetz

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