Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know

"A wise and wonderfully enjoyable book. Mark Lilla treats weighty matters with a light touch, in an elegant prose style that crackles with dry wit . . . Invigorating." —John Banville, The Guardian

A dazzling exploration of our wish to remain innocent and ignorant—and its consequences.

Aristotle claimed that “all human beings want to know.” Our own experience proves that all human beings also want not to know. Today, centuries after the Enlightenment, mesmerized crowds still follow prepostero...