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In the early modern period, ignorance was commonly perceived as a sin, a flaw, a defect, and even a threat to religion and the social order. Yet praises of ignorance were also expressed in the same context. Reclaiming the long-lasting legacy of medieval doctrines of ignorance and taking a comparative perspective, Sandrine Parageau tells the history of the apparently counter-intuitive moral, cognitive and epistemological virtues attributed to ignorance in the long seventeenth century (1580s-1700) in England and in France. With close textual analysis of hitherto neglected sources and a reassessment of canonical philosophical works by Montaigne, Bacon, Descartes, Locke, and others, Parageau specifically examines the role of ignorance in the production of knowledge, identifying three common virtues of ignorance as a mode of wisdom, a principle of knowledge, and an epistemological instrument, in philosophical and theological works. How could an essentially negative notion be turned into something profitable and even desirable? Taken in the context of Renaissance humanism, the Reformation and the "Scientific Revolution"—which all called for a redefinition and reaffirmation of knowledge—ignorance, Parageau finds, was not dismissed in the early modern quest for renewed ways of thinking and knowing. On the contrary, it was assimilated into the philosophical and scientific discourses of the time. The rehabilitation of ignorance emerged as a paradoxical cornerstone of the nascent modern science.

Theory of knowledge --- anno 1600-1699 --- England --- France --- Ignorance (Theory of knowledge) --- Knowledge, Theory of --- History --- England. --- France. --- autodidacticism. --- docta ignorantia. --- early modern. --- ignorance. --- internal light. --- paradox. --- skepticism. --- wisdom.

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In Women and Curiosity in Early Modern England and France , the rehabilitation of female curiosity between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries is thoroughly investigated for the first time, in a comparative perspective that confronts two epistemological and religious traditions. In the context of the early modern blooming “culture of curiosity”, women’s desire for knowledge made them both curious subjects and curious objects, a double relation to curiosity that is meticulously inquired into by the authors in this volume. The social, literary, theological and philosophical dimensions of women’s persistent association with curiosity offer a rich contribution to cultural history.

History of civilization --- anno 1600-1699 --- anno 1500-1599 --- France --- Great Britain --- Curiosity --- Knowledge, Sociology of --- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination & Race Relations. --- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Minority Studies. --- Women --- Social aspects --- History --- History. --- Intellectual life --- Intellectual life. --- Knowledge, Theory of (Sociology) --- Sociology of knowledge --- Communication --- Knowledge, Theory of --- Public opinion --- Sociology --- Social epistemology --- Exploratory behavior --- Inquisitiveness --- Interest (Psychology) --- Human females --- Wimmin --- Woman --- Womon --- Womyn --- Females --- Human beings --- Femininity