A&E/Primal Ignorance

Based on Robert McClintock's writings, particularly his later work on the StudyPlace project and Enough, he addresses the concept of "primal ignorance" as the fundamental existential condition of human life. Far from being a mere lack of data, he views this ignorance as the vital starting point for all authentic education and self-formation.

Here is how McClintock defines and utilizes the concept:

1. The Existential Starting Point

McClintock asserts that every person begins life in a state of primal ignorance. We emerge into the world "inchoate and ignorant," encompassed by a vast, glorious puzzle.

• The Blooming, Buzzing Confusion: Drawing on William James, he describes the infant's initial state as being assailed by sensory input—eyes, ears, skin, entrails—feeling it all as one "great blooming, buzzing confusion".
• The Scope of Ignorance: This ignorance is profound. It does not consist merely of not knowing how to do what we want; more importantly, it consists of not knowing what we can do, might do, or should do. We enter life without our powers or purposes laid out for us.

2. The Engine of Study

For McClintock, this ignorance is not a defect to be fixed by "instruction," but the primary motivator for "study."

• Charting the Path: Because we possess this primal ignorance, we must try, invent, improvise, and create our lives as we go along. McClintock argues that "study becomes the engine of self-formation as we chart our path through our primal ignorance".
• Wonder: This ignorance drives the "urge to learn liberally," beginning in wonder. He uses the example of an infant dropping a spoon repeatedly from a high chair. To an adult, this is a mess; to the infant driven by primal ignorance, it is a profound inquiry into the nature of the world: "Will the spoon drop? Why does it fall? Why doesn't it just stay put?".

3. The Veil of Ignorance (Plato vs. Rawls)

McClintock reinterprets the philosophical concept of the "veil of ignorance." While John Rawls used it as a hypothetical thought experiment for justice (imagining we don't know our social standing), McClintock argues that Plato’s use of the veil was far more sensible and realistic.

• Unknown Potentials: He argues that people genuinely do not know their own aptitudes or potentialities until they try to develop them. An "opaque veil hides capabilities from view," preventing us (and testing services) from knowing in advance what a person can become.
• Formative Imperative: Because we are ignorant of our capacities, we must form them as fully as we can to discover what they are. This is the fundamental rationale for universal education: to allow the self-forming agent to discover their possibilities through the effort of development.

4. Ignorance as the Subject of Education

McClintock critiques the educational profession for failing to study ignorance with the same rigor that medicine studies disease.

• The Missing Analogy: He posits that "Ignorance is to education as disease is to medicine". Just as medicine has an elaborate classification of diseases, education should systematically inquire into the different types of ignorance—developmental, physical, or that arising from "malnutrition of the mind".
• A Condition of Risk: We live at risk, in a condition of "substantial ignorance" regarding the cultural resources available to us and the consequences of our actions.

5. The Cognitive Abyss

Finally, McClintock extends this ignorance to our own internal cognitive processes. He argues that we have "primal ignorance at the base of everything" because we do not know how we think. We only know the "message received" (the thought that occurs to us); we do not know what our cognitive capacities sent or how they generated it. We are, in effect, opaque to ourselves, necessitating a lifelong effort of interpretation and self-regulation.

In summary, for McClintock, primal ignorance is the condition of human liberty and agency. Because we do not know what we are or what we can do, we are free—and obligated—to engage in the lifelong work of formative justice to find out.