Many People Do Not Properly Understand 'Ignorance'
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (90917)
United States
March 26, 2022 8:42am CST
Ignorant or ignorance is usually a word that meets with much disdain if someone is accused of being that. Even I don't necessarily like it if someone calls me ignorant.
But the word is really not as pejorative as it comes off.
It does not mean, if someone is ignorant, that they are dumb for example. It does not mean that one who is ignorant lacks the intelligence and the ability to more fully understand something.
Ignorance means exactly what it sounds like it means. You are ignoring something. And most often that simply means you are not considering all of the details or facts on something, and when you do that it means you are forming an opinion without considering all of the things present that could help guide one to a better personally understood and well rounded opinion.
What I find interesting about the word is that most of the time the people who use it to describe someone are actually the ones who are themselves, in fact, ignorant. lol
10 people like this
10 responses
@marguicha (223028)
• Chile
26 Mar 22
Ignorare in Latin means not knowing. It does not have to do with not considering either because considering means that you Do know but that you are not taking that into account. I do agree with you though is that the word is used in a pejorative way instead of dumb.
4 people like this
@sulynsi (2671)
• Canada
26 Mar 22
So many words in English come from Latin - I find it fascinating to read the original meanings and find it still more interesting how those words have gained slightly different meanings through usage over the years.
Language is such a dynamic and ever changing thing.
As an example, this week, I was mulling over the difference between the word 'reject' and 'decline', which essentially mean exactly the same thing - but somehow, 'decline' in a certain context, is just more polite than reject.
If you 'reject' someone's idea, it feels much harsher than to 'decline' to accept it. Weird, eh?
3 people like this
@marguicha (223028)
• Chile
26 Mar 22
@sulynsi I have loved language and words ever since I remember. Now, in my native language, I´m a writer of short stories. Spanish, besides the many works that come from Latin and Greek, we have many words that come from Nahuatl (Mayas) and the Incas and Aymaras. Chocolate comes from the Nahuatl word chocolatl and so does avocado (aguacatl).
3 people like this
@porwest (90917)
• United States
29 Mar 22
Ignorare in Latin means not knowing. It does not have to do with not considering either because considering means that you Do know but that you are not taking that into account. I do agree with you though is that the word is used in a pejorative way instead of dumb.
The English translation is more attuned to 'not knowing something.' But again, MORE attuned to not seeking out that which can be learned.
"She was ignorant to the fact that there was a policy about dating co-workers," does not suggest there was no policy or that she could not learn what the policy was. It just means she did not know about it. BUT, that also would fit with "ignorance is no excuse" that someone else mentioned. Her ignorance, in other words to the policy would not be a reason that she would not be held accountable for breaking it when the policy was available to be known.
1 person likes this
@RebeccasFarm (89883)
• Arvada, Colorado
26 Mar 22
Ignorance to me is not knowing something.
3 people like this
@RebeccasFarm (89883)
• Arvada, Colorado
27 Mar 22
@porwest To me ignoring is obstructive defiance.
2 people like this
@porwest (90917)
• United States
27 Mar 22
For the most part that is true. But it is also still ignoring what you CAN know if the information is readily available to learn.
For example, take the stock market. Many people are ignorant to it, but it is not because the information is not there for someone to become "in the know" about it. Nor is someone who is ignorant of the stock market incapable of understanding it.
2 people like this
@porwest (90917)
• United States
28 Mar 22
@RebeccasFarm In some cases it can be. Politics is a good example of that kind of ignorance honestly.
@sulynsi (2671)
• Canada
26 Mar 22
There are so many words we use without fully realizing their nuances.
When I think about that expression, 'Ignorance is no excuse' - it does subtly imply that the lack of knowledge is by choice or by simply not bothering to find out. True, the person doesn't know, but that does not mean they could not have chosen to find out.
3 people like this
@1creekgirl (41430)
• United States
26 Mar 22
My husband points this out at times, also. It doesn't mean people are stupid, just that they don't know.
2 people like this
@aninditasen (16395)
• Raurkela, India
27 Mar 22
Ignorance may or may not be willfully. Sometimes we are ignorant about something unknowingly.
2 people like this
@aninditasen (16395)
• Raurkela, India
31 Mar 22
@porwest Yes, one can learn but one has to be sure about it.
1 person likes this
@porwest (90917)
• United States
1 Apr 22
@aninditasen The only one becomes sure about something is to start to dig into it. lol
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (44537)
• Staten Island, New York
28 Mar 22
If facts are staring a person in the face but they choose to ignore them does that make that person ignorant?
@innertalks (21916)
• Australia
28 Mar 22
There is such a thing as feigned ignorance too.
I often play along that way, to see what someone else might know, or think about something, when they assume that I know nothing.
Ignorance is often pretending that we do not know, for the heart of it is that we do know, even as God knows all too.
We know a lot of stuff innately, as a gut feeling of what is right then, too.
Ignorance can be found in all areas of life, but it more pertains to factual stuff, not to wisdom, and wisdom is always around independent of any ignorance focussed in any area.
Wisdom can exist, despite lack of knowledge in a wise person, but in a dumb person, there is usually no wisdom either.
@LindaOHio (178701)
• United States
27 Mar 22
"lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated". It can also mean, in a not-so-common instance, discourteous or rude.
1 person likes this
@ZohaibWrites (60)
•
26 Mar 22
Please explain ignorance is a choice or the lack of understanding of something?
1 person likes this
