Obscurantism
Obscurantism is opposition to the spread of knowledge or deliberate restriction of access to it, often to preserve authority or established beliefs.
Censorship: The suppression or restriction of expression, publication, or access to information. Censorship is a direct means of blocking knowledge that obscurantism seeks to contain.
Obscurantism (history of the term): The history of the word obscurantism and its use in controversies over knowledge and authority. The word gained force as a charge against those accused of resisting intellectual enlightenment.
Denis Diderot: A French Enlightenment writer and editor who co-directed the Encyclopédie. Diderot's encyclopedia project sought to gather and circulate knowledge despite censorship.
Intellectual freedom: The freedom to form, hold, and communicate ideas without undue interference. It names the liberty obscurantist policies constrain.
Book burning: The deliberate destruction of books, often as a political, religious, or cultural act. Destroying texts makes the restriction of knowledge physically visible.
Enlightenment: An eighteenth-century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, inquiry, and criticism of inherited authority. Enlightenment writers cast resistance to inquiry as a defense of ignorance and power.
Immanuel Kant: An eighteenth-century German philosopher whose work shaped modern accounts of reason and knowledge. Kant's defense of public reasoning makes intellectual freedom a counter to obscurantism.
Academic freedom: The freedom of scholars and institutions to teach, research, and publish without improper interference. Academic freedom protects inquiry where obscurantism pressures educational institutions.
Secrecy: The practice of keeping information hidden from particular people or the public. Withholding information can preserve unequal access without publicly banning ideas.
Counter-Enlightenment: A diverse set of critiques of Enlightenment ideas, especially universal reason and political reform. Its criticism of Enlightenment confidence is distinct from suppressing knowledge, though the two are often conflated.