My graduate school degree major was Computer Science, and my minor was Philosophy. In those days, those two subjects had considerable overlap, and I hope that they still do. The Philosophy component is where I studied Logic (Propositional and Predicate Calculus) and Epistemology and the nature of language. Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge, and it is relevant to the field of Linguistics.
Although my computing studies and subsequent work in software engineering endeavors centered around natural and synthetic languages, I have not thought about these things until recently with the hype and reporting around them in the context of Artificial Intelligence. Let me say that much of what exists today as AI was actually part of the Computer Science reality in the 1970s, but in those days, we did not have the computational power to make it practical. Things have changed since then.
Today, considering the behaviors around various political efforts to restrict speech (Don’t say Gay), ban books, and criminalize Drag Queen book readings, I wondered whether there might be a medical diagnosis for Fear of Knowledge. It seems that there is!
Epistomophobia is an anxiety disorder in which the sufferer of the condition experiences the usual psychological and visceral discomforts of anxiety when exposed to new knowledge – a feeling of dread, panic, and impending doom, rapid pulse, abdominal discomfort, and perhaps nausea and other vasovagal manifestations. I have to wonder whether Adam and Eve experienced this in the Garden of Eden when they tasted the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.
I doubt that the majority of De Santis’ followers or MAGA Republicans, for that matter, have diagnosable Epistomophobia, but their behaviors are not inconsistent with that diagnosis. If only there were a pill that we could prescribe for the condition – perhaps a beta-blocker or benzodiazepine.
If so, I would recommend that Pharma explore the possibility of delivering it to them in suppository form.