Ignorance
Author: Peter Kuttner
Date: 02 June 2010
There are many aspects to ignorance, a number of which reflect poorly on those possessing this quality. But ignorance can have its value too, even helping oil the social machine, as Peter Kuttner finds in his personal reflections on the topic.
Where to begin? On the face of it, my profound ignorance should amply qualify me to write this article. Boy, do I know about being ignorant, although ironically, it requires a person far less ignorant than me to get to grips with the subject. Confronting one’s ignorance is rather dispiriting; much better not to dwell on it. My Concise Webster’s does not define ignorance. It merely lists the word as the noun for ignorant, which is defined as: “without knowledge; uninformed; resulting from want of knowledge.”
I consider myself reasonably well educated. But I was forced to face my own ignorance while reading Jenny Uglow’s superb book, The Lunar Men about an inspiring group of friends who lived in and around Birmingham during the second half of the 18th century and who visited each other’s houses to argue about any topic other than politics or religion and exchange information about their multifarious activities. They met on the Monday nearest the full moon to better light their way home. The core group included Erasmus Darwin (doctor, poet and grandfather of Charles), Josiah Wedgewood, Matthew Boulton, James Watt and Joseph Priestley; luminaries all. Samuel Dalton became a member of the extended group.
These men reflected the age in which they lived by their consuming pursuit of scientific knowledge. Regrettably, by the time of my secondary education in the 1950s, science had for some while been one of two separate streams of learning and a mystery to many if not most of those who opted for the arts. This is as true even of the science of 250 years ago, whether concerning metallurgy, ceramics, the nature of gases, the propagation of plants or the mechanics of steam power. It was understood and in part significantly developed by the ‘Lunar Men’, whereas it is a closed book to me.
The ‘Lunar Men’ were probably among the last generations who could aspire to a general understanding of what western hubris regards as human knowledge, a supremely impressive accomplishment nonetheless and one that has long been impossible. I have no clear memory of doing lab work at school and I only passed my O level maths by 1/3rd of a per cent after extra coaching. My academic interests lay outside science. Since my school days I could have rectified the gap in my education had I been so inclined. Instead, I acquired an interest in industrial archaeology to add to my admiration of the achievements of the great 18th, 19th and early 20th century engineers. More recently I have enjoyed books about the Royal Society and about scientists whose lives were intertwined with the lives of the romantic poets. My reading confirmed my view that the men and women featured in these books were just as creative as the artists I have long revered.