Agnosia

A political philosophy which holds that those who rule should have as little knowledge as possible of the context and results of their decisions.

Under an ideal agnosic system, the chain of political cause and effect flows in only one direction - those who hold power are completely insulated from those they rule over, and so are free from any influence or motivation to effect any particular policies except those that they deem, in the abstract, most right. Prominent agnosics argue that political decisions in non-agnosic systems are muddied not only by personal stakes, but also by the tendency to interpret the results of one's decisions in self-serving ways. The Cashew Scandal is often pointed to as an example of the failings of non-agnosic rule.

Several of the Experimental Duchies (among them the renowned Sapphire Duchy) implemented agnosic rule. Typically this manifested as rule by a class of senator-monks, sequestered away from the rest of society and allowed only very precisely delineated modes of communication. In these cases, the Duke or Duchess of the territory either became a senator-monk themselves or oversaw the practical branch of government, which implemented and enforced the missives that emerged from the senators' cloister.

The Duchy of Chire Moraine followed a particularly extreme incarnation of this philosophy. Duke Moraine decreed that the sole governing authority of the territory would be a child raised in darkness by unspeaking attendants. Further records are fragmentary at best.

- Noema, the Lucent