What is blind ignorance?

Asked by: Annamae Cronin I  |  Last update: February 19, 2022
Score: 4.7/5 (40 votes)

Willful blindness or Wilful blindness (sometimes called ignorance of law, willful ignorance, contrived ignorance, intentional ignorance or Nelsonian knowledge) is a term used in law to describe a situation in which a person seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally keeping ...

What causes willful ignorance?

Sometimes this is due to innocent memory failures or to the lack of needed information. ... Willful ignorance occurs when individuals realize at some level of consciousness that their beliefs are probably false, or when they refuse to attend to information that would establish their falsity.

Is willful ignorance illegal?

Abstract. Courts commonly allow willful ignorance to satisfy the knowledge element of a crime. The traditional rationale for this doctrine is that willfully ignorant misconduct is just as culpable as knowing misconduct. ... For some crimes, conviction requires knowledge of an inculpatory proposition.

Which of the following are examples of wilful blindness?

An example of this would be a case where someone transporting illegal drugs tries to claim innocence by not looking in the package and thus not knowing that he was transporting drugs.

What is the word for willful ignorance?

Willfully ignorant or willfully blind are the usual terms, though not single words. Related concepts are: obdurate, dogmatic, incurious, close-minded, narrow-minded, oblivious, blinkered, prejudiced, stubborn, obstinate. It's also a legal term: Willful blindness.

Margaret Heffernan: The dangers of "willful blindness"

22 related questions found

What is the word for pretending something doesn't exist?

overlook. verb. to choose to ignore a mistake, fault etc.

What do you call someone who ignores facts?

Denialism is an essentially irrational action that withholds the validation of a historical experience or event, when a person refuses to accept an empirically verifiable reality. ...

Can you be intentionally ignorant?

Willful blindness or Wilful blindness (sometimes called ignorance of law, willful ignorance, contrived ignorance, intentional ignorance or Nelsonian knowledge) is a term used in law to describe a situation in which a person seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally keeping ...

How are ignorance and willful ignorance different?

Ignorance is simply the state of not knowing something, not having certain knowledge or information. ... It's more polite than being called ignorant. The term willfully ignorant refers to those who lack the information or facts because they refuse to acknowledge them.

What does conscious avoidance mean?

Willful blindness, also known as conscious avoidance, is a judicially-made doctrine that expands the definition of knowledge to include closing one's eyes to the high probability a fact exists.

Is wilful blindness a crime?

Wilful blindness applies to the accused's state of mind. It describes a situation where someone tries to escape criminal liability by intentionally overlooking the obvious. The Court of Appeal in Downey specifically wrote that “[w]ilful blindness acts as a substitute for actual knowledge”.

Is willful blindness a crime?

Willful blindness (also known as conscious avoidance or deliberate ignorance) is a judicial doctrine that makes a criminal conviction on a tax issue more likely by imputing knowledge onto a defendant.

What is wilful blindness in law?

The doctrine of wilful blindness imputes knowledge to an accused whose suspicion is aroused to the point where he or she sees the need for further inquiries, but deliberately chooses not to make those inquiries.

What are the two types of ignorance?

The first category is when we do not know we are ignorant. This is primary ignorance. The second category is when we recognize our ignorance. This is called recognized ignorance.

When can you say it is vincible ignorance?

Doctrine of vincible ignorance

An individual is morally responsible for their ignorance and for the acts resulting from it. If some insufficient diligence was shown in dispelling ignorance, it is termed merely vincible; it may diminish culpability to the point of rendering a sin venial.

How do you know if you're ignorant?

10 Signs You Are a Hopelessly Ignorant Fool
  1. You think politicians have your best interest at heart. ...
  2. You believe in a religion just because your parents told you to. ...
  3. You get all of your news from a single source. ...
  4. You couldn't tell me the last time you read a book.

What does woefully ignorant mean?

3 : lamentably bad or serious : deplorable woeful ignorance.

What is ignorant behavior?

The definition of ignorant is something or someone lacking in knowledge, or is stupid or rude. ... An example of ignorant is impolite behavior that goes against the standard custom of proper manners.

What is conscientious stupidity?

King spoke frequently about two concepts - sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity - that are very relevant today. ... But conscientious stupidity means that you are making a decision to live in error or to believe untruths or misinformation, that's very dangerous.

How do you change ignorant people?

Here are several ways to deal with ignorant people.
  1. Ignore them. Ignorant people and rude people are similar in the sense that they both need attention. ...
  2. Be kind. Try to be kind to the person who is irritating you. ...
  3. Provide external reference. ...
  4. Remember their ignorant remarks. ...
  5. Peacefully walk away.

What do you call a person who pretends to know everything?

A pantomath is a person who wants to know or knows everything.

What do you call someone who doesn't see the obvious?

"Oblivious" used to refer to forgetting, but is now often used for this sort of failure to notice.

What do you call a person in denial?

noun. a person who denies. a person who refuses to accept the existence, truth, or validity of something despite evidence or general support for it: The writer is a Holocaust denier; a denier of climate change.

What do you call a person who pretends to be nice?

phoney. adjective. informal someone who is phoney pretends to be friendly, clever, kind etc.

What do you call someone who looks innocent but isn t?

One such word is hypocrite; another is poseur. The distinction is that a hypocrite criticizes others for the same failings he has himself, but pretends not to have.