Purya Rabet

This paper engages with the emerging field of ignorance studies. Per feminist critique, the classic “X knows that P” formulation in epistemology fails to account for the subjectivity and situatedness of X. Building on feminist and critical race theory contributions, this paper puts forward a positive theory regarding resistance to belief-revision. The inquiry concerns the relationship between X’s ignorance and X’s self. This paper interrogates defensive reactions to knowledge and their connection to the narrative sense of self. It introduces “safe-haven ignorance”—a psycho-sociopolitical defense mechanism—which occurs when an individual becomes hostile toward knowledge that contradicts their established self-narrative. This contradiction is perceived as a threat to the individual’s self, challenging what is familiar or presumed fixed about themself. Individuals avert the threat to their self by forgoing knowledge, by taking refuge. The qualifier “safe-haven” captures individuals’ familiar self-narrative (based on their situated social position within particular social structures and systems). This psychological and sociopolitical quality sets apart safe-haven ignorance from a generic conception of ignorance where subjects are fungible.