Is there ever a situation where ignorance should be respected?

I don’t think either situation you provide is really about respecting ignorance – I’m not sure what it is, though…it’s just a good idea to not want to hear the dirty laundry because later your hands will be tied.

I definitel ythink having one’s boundaries be respected is essential and if a friend does not want to hear about something, they should not be told it.

I agree with you about the examples you give. Your friend should respect your stance of not wanting to be in any way a party to his infidelity even though it reallys sucks you know about it in the first place.

I see where you are heading with the examples. The first seems weak to me, as it’s a bit late to shut the barn door after the horse is already out. When his wife finds out, and I agree she will, the very fact you made an issue of his sharing the information with you will almost certainly lead him to suspect you as the snitch. Even if she knows details he never told you, he’ll just conclude she pieced that part together after you tipped her off to his infidelity. In the second, you proceeded to dismantle the client’s state of ignorance, albeit slowly.

I haven’t considered every possible scenario. Certainly if someone is aggressive about maintaining their ignorance and they have a loaded 44 magnum in hand while I am unarmed, I am perfectly OK with leaving them to their mistaken beliefs. But in general, I would always side with knowledge as superior to ignorance, even when the knowledge disturbs the sense of bliss such ignorance had allowed.

I say if he needs to tell you is because he feels guilty. I would stay out of it. He deserves to be alone with his guilt.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies, ”What about willful ignorance… for example, a friend wants to tell me details about how he cheated on his wife. I said “I don’t want to know”, and he was offended because he feels that he should be able to talk with his friend about anything. I say, “Nope, because when she finds out (and she will) then you won’t be able to suspect me as the one who told her. You’ll have to accept the consequences of your actions without me to share the blame with.”

Willful ignorance can partially be respected because there is always a consequence to willful ignorance. In regards to your example, it seems like a wise choice that could be respected since you’re merely safeguarding yourself from a potential danger, but it’s also based on speculation. Also, looking at this from another viewpoint, it can be unethical behavior on your part, because you could have informed the wife which would spare her from living her entire life in a phony marriage. If looked at from the speculation perspective, then willful ignorance does not have to be respected, thus, your friend doesn’t have to respect your willful ignorance. The consequence would be your friend being upset. To what degree? You won’t know his/her reaction, nor will you know until it’s to late. Furthermore, the information your friend wanted to share could have been informative to you, thus, you deprived yourself from potential useful knowledge. There might have been some life experience in it for you as well.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies, ”Another kind of ignorance is unqualified assumption. My client assumes that he owns the rights of my photography just because he paid for the shoot. I respect his ignorance, and set upon a tactful plan to educate him about how the photo business actually works, separating shoot fees from usage rights fees.”

In this case, a good business man/women would know that the customer is always right, thus, always respecting the client’s ignorance. However, educating the client about policy can spark up the super ego of the client. The client can assume you are insulting his/her intelligence by trying to explain him/her something as if he/she was dumb. Also, respecting the clients ignorance can be done by allowing him/her to assume as he/she did in your example while you disregard your policy for the sake to have future business with the client and spreading the word to whoever he/she knows, unless of course that disregarding your policy would cause you just as much loss as if you were to take a chance in educating him/her, then it wouldn’t matter which method of respecting the clients ignorance would apply. You basically have the potential of losing either way, whether you respect or lack respect for ignorance.

I think the only way to fully respect ignorance would be if there was no consequence, and a person who is fully ignorant would be one who doesn’t know any consequences, thus, would be the only one who can respect ignorance. I’m just writing as I go along. I’m not sure if this makes sense.

I can respect a person’s desire to not be party to information they feel they don’t need to or wish to know.

I can understand but not necessarily respect using someone else’s ignorance for one’s own benefit.

Well, i agree with your examples and i probably would have done the same thing. There are some things i don’t care to know anything about and i want to remain ignorant about them for whatever reason. As long as this “willful ingorance” is not harming anyone or causes me to behave like an idiot in causing all sorts of problems, or compromises my job (or whatever!), then that “willful ignorance” should be respected for sure. Why should one be forced to know things that will not contribute to their life in a way they seek to have something contribute to it? Some things just deserve to unknown.

Yes.

;-)