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cover of episode Peter Burke, "Ignorance: A Global History" (Yale UP, 2024)

Peter Burke, "Ignorance: A Global History" (Yale UP, 2024)

2025/2/14
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Peter Burke: 我是一名文化历史学家，退休前在剑桥大学教授欧洲历史，主要研究16和17世纪。退休后，我开始专注于问题研究，而非特定历史时期，过去二十年主要研究知识史，我称之为知识的社会史。我本想将新书命名为《无知的社会史》，但出版社认为《全球史》更能吸引读者。写作关于无知的历史面临方法论上的挑战，因为缺乏直接的资料来源，虽然没有关于缺失的直接来源，但存在许多间接来源可以利用。

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This chapter delves into the definition of ignorance as the absence of knowledge, contrasting it with the concept of constructing ignorance. It explores various types of ignorance, including simple ignorance, willful ignorance, and the deliberate concealment of knowledge by certain groups.
  • Definition of ignorance as the absence of knowledge
  • Three types of ignorance: simple, willful, and deliberate concealment
  • Focus on the historical context of ignorance

Shownotes Transcript

Throughout history, every age has thought of itself as more knowledgeable than the last. Renaissance humanists viewed the Middle Ages as an era of darkness, Enlightenment thinkers tried to sweep superstition away with reason, the modern welfare state sought to slay the “giant” of ignorance, and in today’s hyperconnected world seemingly limitless information is available on demand. But what about the knowledge lost over the centuries? Are we really any less ignorant than our ancestors?

In* Ignorance: A Global History*) (Yale UP, 2024), Peter Burke examines the long history of humanity’s ignorance across religion and science, war and politics, business and catastrophes. Burke reveals remarkable stories of the many forms of ignorance—genuine or feigned, conscious and unconscious—from the willful politicians who redrew Europe’s borders in 1919 to the politics of whistleblowing and climate change denial. The result is a lively exploration of human knowledge across the ages, and the importance of recognizing its limits

Peter Burke is emeritus professor of cultural history at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of many distinguished books that have been translated into more than thirty languages, including The Polymath and What Is the History of Knowledge?

Morteza Hajizadeh) is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel). Twitter).

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