Five Levels Of Ignorance

Philip Armour enumerated Five Levels Of Ignorance.

He enumerated them starting at Level Zero which corresponds to having no ignorance and proceed up (or rather down ) to Level Four a comprehensive or complete level of ignorance.

Level Zero: Knowledge

At level zero you have a lack of ignorance. To be at level zero you must be able to demonstrate your knowledge. Consider the particular skill of tying a Square Knot. To be at level zero of ignorance of a Square Knot you must be able to tie one.

Level One: Ignorance, With Awareness

At level one you have ignorance but you know you are ignorant. In the case of the Square Knot, if you do not know how to tie one but are aware there is such a thing as a Square Knot, you are at level one ignorance of Square Knot.

Level Two: Ignorance Combined with Lack of Awareness

At level two, you do not even know that you do not know something. Whatever you know of the Square Knot, there is without a doubt some knot that you do not even know the name. For this knot you are at level two. It is amusing and seemingly paradoxical that as soon as you learn the name of the knot, you rise to level one for that particular knot.

Level Three: Unknowable Ignorance

Level three is composed of level two ignorance combined with a lack of means of identifying those level two items. In the case of all of those knots that you are at level three, you are at level two and not three since you have a way of finding them. If all else fails you could use a combination of Google and Wikipedia to find their names. Once again, in a paradoxical fashion if I could provide a description of individual level three items they would be identified and thus not even level two.

Level Four: Meta Ignorance

This level Armour defined as ignorance of the five levels of ignorance. There is humor to this level but it serves a purpose. Chances are you are not in the business of tying knots. But if it were the five levels provide a road map. Constraints of time and the demands of opportunity will cause you to search for and move items through the various levels. Now lets take your actual business, Widgets. To start you should see if Google and Wikipedia are sufficient, and so on through the levels.