Epistemophilia is the drive to know/ the love of knowledge, while Epistemophobia is defined as the morbid and irrational fear of knowledge. But what is truly the real definition of knowledge in this context? Every person has their own way of taking things in and learning. But is the fear of learning learned? The answer in my opinion is yes. A fear is just an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. In my experiences knowledge does not cause any of theses things.
Now with this in mind is epistemophobia really a phobia if what you fear is an emotion that was learned? As babies we do not have a fear of anything. As we age into adulthood we learn to fear things which leads to phobias, some more intense than others. In the video from Science Studios Greg speaks about the meaning of a fear. He gives a great example that’s a baby does not fear a spider if they see it. The baby won’t resist it and would rather be curious about it. It is only when the spider harms the baby that it learns of its malicious intent and resists it.
*WARNING: This video contains graphic content. * Stop before 1:18
Through this experience the baby has the knowledge that the spider is harmful so they fear it. Once the child has grown up they might get arachnophobia due to this experience. Getting back to epistemophobia, the fear of knowledge is learned so does this cancel out its phobia? I do not know the answer to this. However I can say from experience that I do not believe that knowledge is dangerous, causes pain, or is a threat. Most often, phobias are caused by a trauma, which usually occurs during childhood. In most cases people with epistemophobia usually have another physiological disorder.
http://mostcommonphobias.com/epistemophobia-fear-knowledge/