Alessandra Tanesini April 2019 Active Ignorance Virtuous and

Alessandra Tanesini April 2019

§ Active Ignorance § Virtuous and vicious epistemic sensibilities THE PLAN § Racial insensitivity § Arrogance as Superbia § Superbia and Self-Ignorance § Privilege, arrogance, ignorance a self-sustaining triad.

§ Ignorance as § False belief that p § Withholding belief as to whether p § Never thought of p WHAT IS IGNORANC E § Plain ignorance is ignorance that is the result of accident, bad luck, cognitive limitation or shortcoming § Active ignorance is ignorance that is the result of social and/or psychological mechanisms whose function is to produce ignorance

§ Three forms of active ignorance: § Motivated ignorance: ignorance that is the ACTIVE IGNORANC E outcome of processes motivated by a desire not to know. § Deliberate Ignorance: ignorance that is the result of others’ activities that intentionally spread false information or are designed to engender doubt and confusion. § Systematic ignorance: ignorance that is the result of occupying a cognitive niches that systematically facilitates ignorance and whose success at fostering ignorance makes it self-sustaining.

MOTIVATE D IGNORANC E RESULTING FROM VICIOUS SENSIBILITI ES § The manner in which one deploys one’s perceptual capacities is a sensibility. § Some sensibilities are virtuous (e. g. , being observant) some are vicious (e. g. , being testimonially unjust). § Vicious sensibilities are ways of being insensitive to what is epistemically salient (given one’s own goals). § Vicious sensibilities result in motivated ignorance. § Two forms of motivated ignorance: § Motivated cognition that produces false beliefs or withholding of belief. § Motivated avoidance of cognition so that one does not entertain any ideas on relevant topic.

RACIAL INSENSITIV ITY AND MOTIVATE D IGNORANC E § Racial insensitivity is a vicious sensibility. § Racial insensitivity as the sensibility that produces motivated ignorance about racial privilege § Racial insensitivity as “numbness” (Medina, 2013, 2016). § Racial insensitivity as a sensibility where negative affect toward ethnic minorities captures attention away from what is epistemically salient. § Aversive racism as racial insensitivity

§ Behaving arrogantly § Arrogance about A § Arrogance in situation D WHAT IS ARROGAN CE? § Arrogance tout court § Kinds of arrogance: § Hyper-autonomy/ hubris § Superbia is a complex disposition (a) to do others down in order to excel and (b) to enhance oneself (Tanesini 2016, 2018)

§ The behaviours expressive of superbia serve the role of either § Enhacing the self (bragging, mansplaining, HOW DOES SUPERBIA WORK? boasting, arrogating special privileges) Or § Diminishing others (humiliating, intimidating, deflating their authority and credibility, dismissing, ignoring) § The sense of self worth of those who have superbia depends on feeling superior to others § High self-esteem that is defensive

§ Superbia is invested in motivated self- SUPERBIA AND MOTIVATE D IGNORANC E ignorance § If one can think well of oneself only if one feels superior one is likely to § Overestimate one’s own strengths § Underestimate or have no opinion about other people’s strengths § Avoid thought about one’s limitations § Superbia promotes vicious sensibilities including § Being testimonially unjust § Being racially insensitive § Being ignorant of one’s white privilege and deflating others’ credibility are instrumental to preserving feelings of superiority § Psychologically, ignorance is easier to manage by avoiding thought than by fighting to preserve false belief

§ Avoidance of thought is a luxury HOW PRIVILEGE ENABLES IGNORANC E § e. g. , only white people can afford to be knowingly ignorant about race § e. g. , entitled people can avoid facing evidence of their own abilities by selfhandicapping (Lupien et al. , 2010). § Ignorance by avoidance is enabled by material and social privilege.

§ Superbia includes a disposition to behave HOW ARROGAN CE ENTRENCH ES PRIVILEGE in ways that diminish others by § Intimidating § Dismissing § Humiliating § The behaviours are often effective § Those who are intimidated, humiliated and dismissed often § Lose self-confidence § Are less able to function as informants § Suffer from atrophy of their own abilities § Are denied opportunities to improve

§ Arrogance, by means of behaviours that A VICIOUS CIRCLE diminish others, § Entrenches privilege. § The privilege that enables the kind of ignorance that § Protects arrogance