Agnoiology (from the Greek ἀγνοέω, meaning ignorance) is the theoretical study of the quality and conditions of ignorance, and in particular of what can truly be considered "unknowable" (as distinct from "unknown"). The term was coined by

James Frederick Ferrier James Frederick Ferrier (16 June 1808 – 11 June 1864) was a Scottish metaphysical writer and philosopher. He introduced the word ''epistemology'' in philosophical English, as well as coining agnoiology for the study of ignorance. Education ...

, in his ''Institutes of Metaphysic'' (1854), as a foil to the theory of knowledge, or

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epis ...

.Roy Dilley, "The Construction of Ethnographic Knowledge in a Colonial Context", in ''Ways of Knowing: Anthropological Approaches to Crafting Experience and Knowledge'', edited by Mark Harris (New York and Oxford, 2007), pp. 139-140.

References

{{epistemology Epistemology