Ignorance: How Knowledge About our Ignorance Helps with Environmental Problems

Without realizing and acknowledging our ignorance, we often find ourselves in situations where we systematically overestimate our knowledge. This chapter explores the concepts of knowledge and ignorance. It questions how we define the boundaries of our knowledge and to what extent ignorance can be reduced. It asks what humans can know and what systematically eludes their understanding. The text also examines the extent to which humanity overestimates its knowledge and underestimates its ignorance, for instance, in relation to technical solutions or spontaneous social developments. It considers the implications of this for the controllability of technology, nature, and society, and how people can productively deal with their ignorance in relation to environmental problems.