We explain what ignorance is, the origin of the term and how it varied throughout history. Also, its sense in law.
What is ignorance?
When we speak of ignorance (or of being ignorant and ignorant) we generally mean the absence of knowledge, understood in two possible and different ways:
- In a specific way, for example by saying "I don't know what your comment refers to").
- As a continuous and generalized condition (as in "how ignorant is my godfather"). 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 ("To know"), and is close to ignotus ("Unknown", "unknown"). At the time it was used in two different ways:
- Like the verb ignorance, which means "not knowing", "not having information about".
- As the noun ignorant, which referred not only to not knowing something specific, but to a condition in which an individual is frequently misinformed, in particular for reasons of neglect, apathy or self-awareness, that is, not even being able to be aware that there are things that he does not know.
These two different uses survive to this day, and take place even in the philosophical approach to ignorance. Thus, a distinction is usually made between “wise” ignorance (learned ignorant, in the words of Saint Augustine), that of the individual who is aware of his ignorance and limitations, and the "deep" ignorance in which the subject does not even know himself to be ignorant, and therefore is very close to innocence or naivety.
In most cases, when speaking of ignorance, we will be referring to the second of the senses that we have referred to. Today we call ignorant someone who feels apathy or neglect of knowledge, or who is not even capable of recognizing their ignorance and therefore speaks with property of matters that, precisely, they ignore.
Since the emergence of humanism Renaissance, ignorance is generally understood as an ailment and a defect, and it is considered that the work of the education and human reason is to fight it. For this reason, ignorance is often associated with darkness (the darkness ignorance), in the sense that the ignorant reason blindly, is incapable of "seeing" his own misinformation.
From there also arises the proverb that affirms that "ignorance is daring", a paraphrase of what was said by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882): "Ignorance generates more confidence than knowledge", since the ignorant think they more informed or with more understanding of who they really are.
Similarly, in the field of laws and the right, we speak of ignorance to refer to ignorance of the law, especially to support the Roman adage: "ignorance juris non excusat”, That is, 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 Condition to make the laws public and of wide and well-known knowledge.