We explain what ignorance is, the origin of the term and how it varied throughout history. Furthermore, its meaning in law.
What is ignorance?
When we talk about ignorance (or ignoring and ignorant) we generally refer to the absence of knowledge understood in two possible and different ways:
- In a timely manner, for example when saying “I don't know what your comment refers to”).
- As a continuous and generalized condition (as in “how ignorant my godfather is”). In the latter case, it has a pejorative connotation that can even be used as an insult.
The word ignorance comes from Latin and is composed of the prefix in- (“negation”, “the opposite of”) and gnoscere (“know”), and is close to ignotus (“unknown”, “unknown”). At the time it was used in two different ways:
- like the verb ignorantio, which means “not knowing”, “not having information about”.
- Like the noun ignorancewhich referred not only to not knowing something specific, but to a condition in which an individual is frequently uninformed, particularly for reasons of laziness, apathy or self-consciousness, that is, not being able to even be aware that There are things you don't know.
These two different uses survive to this day, and have a place even in the philosophical approach to ignorance. Thus, a distinction is usually made between “wise” ignorance (learned ignorancein the words of Saint Augustine), that of the individual who is aware of his ignorance and limitations, and the “profound” ignorance in which the subject does not even know he is ignorant, and therefore is very close to innocence or naivety.
In most cases, when talking about ignorance, we will be referring to the second of the senses that we have referred to. Nowadays we call ignorant those who feel apathy or neglect of knowledge or who is not even able to recognize their ignorance and therefore speaks appropriately about matters that they, precisely, ignore.
Since the rise of Renaissance humanism, ignorance is generally understood as an ailment and a defect, and It is considered that the work of education and human reason is to combat it. For this reason, ignorance is often associated with darkness (the darkness of ignorance), in the sense that the ignorant reason blindly, are unable to “see” their own misinformation.
From there also arises the proverb that states that “ignorance is daring”, a paraphrase of what was said by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882): “Ignorance breeds more confidence than knowledge”, since the ignorant think they are more informed or with more understanding of what they really are.
Similarly, in the field of laws and law, ignorance is spoken of to refer to ignorance of the law, especially to support the Roman adage: “ignorance juris non excusat“, that is, that Ignoring the law does not exempt us from having to comply with it. This legal precept prevents the violator of the law from excusing himself in his ignorance, and at the same time obliges the State to make the laws public and widely and well-known.
Continue with: Vulgar
References
- “Ignorance” on Wikipedia.
- “Ignorance” in the Dictionary of the language of the Royal Spanish Academy.
- “Etymology of ignorance” in Etymologies of Chile.net.
- “Ignorance” by Oscar M. Prieto in La Nueva Crónica (Spain).
