Aiste- a very distinct characteristic From Old Irish aiste meaning ‘characteristic, special quality, peculiarity; metre’, possibly from Latin essentia meaning ‘essence’, or ‘being’
Anagnorisis (Ancient Greek: ἀναγνώρισις) comes from a literary perspective and it is associated with the word epiphany. Anagnorisis is a moment in a literary work when a character makes a critical discovery. Anagnorisis originally meant recognition in its Greek context, not only of a person but also of what that person stood for. Anagnorisis is the hero's sudden awareness of a real situation, the realisation of things as they stood, and finally, their insight into a relationship with an often antagonistic character in tragedy.
Aristotle defined anagnorisis as "a change from ignorance to knowledge, producing love or hate between the persons destined by the poet for good or bad fortune.
It is often discussed along with Aristotle's concept of catharsis. An epiphany (from the ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphanea, meaning ‘manifestation, striking appearance’) is an experience of a sudden and striking realization. Generally the term is used to describe scientific breakthrough, religious or philosophical discoveries, but it can apply in any enlightening situation in which realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective.
Anoesis - The reception of impressions or sensations (by the brain) without any intellectual understanding or involving intellectual or cognitive processes. Emotions are sometimes considered anoetic. It describes a state of knowledge or memory in which there is no consciousness of knowing or remembering. Anoetic consciousness is a corresponding kind of “unknowing knowing” in which one is aware of external stimuli but not of interpreting them. It is lacking the capacity for understanding or concentrated thought. This meaning, originally applied to intellectual disability, is no longer common.
Aphasia - the inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions. The difficulties of people with aphasia can range from occasional trouble finding words, to losing the ability to speak, read, or write; intelligence, however, is unaffected. One characteristic is anomia, which is a difficulty in finding the correct word. Some confuse aphasia with dysphasia. Technically, dysphasia means impaired language and aphasia means lack of language.
Antinomy - refers to a real or apparent mutual incompatibility of two laws. It is a term used in logic. A logical contradiction.
Connaissance - French for knowledge. From Old French conoissance, meaning ‘knowledge’ from Late Latin cognōscentia meaning ‘knowledge’
Doublethink - the acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, especially as a result of political indoctrination. One is expected to accept as true that which is clearly false, or to simultaneously accept two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in contravention to one's own memories or sense of reality. Doublethink is related to, but differs from, hypocrisy.
Efficacious - capable of having the desired result or effect; effective as a means, measure, remedy.
Honne (本音), is a Japanese word that refers to what we really think in our hearts: our true opinions, thoughts, and desires. Honne is the "real voice" of an individual. Honne may be contrary to what is expected by society or what is required according to one's position and circumstances. Tatemae (建前), meanwhile, refers to the behavior that we adopt in public, according to what is socially accepted or not by society. The word translates as ‘built in front", façade’. In many cases tatemae leads to outright telling of lies in order to avoid exposing the true inward feelings. Hiding what you really think or "putting on an act" in public may often be misunderstood by Westerners - we tend to think of it as hypocrisy. Japan has a different culture and it’s based on courtesy and formality. Public failure and the disapproval of others are seen as shame and reduced social standing, so it is common to avoid direct confrontation or disagreement in most social contexts. Social norms dictate that one should attempt to minimize discord; failure to do so might be seen as insulting or aggressive. For this reason, the Japanese go to great lengths to avoid conflict, especially within the context of large groups. Tatemae and honne, however, are not uniquely Japanese. There might not be a direct single word translation for honne and tatemae in other languages, but the two-word descriptions in English, "private mind" and "public mind", come close.
Hyperthymesia - a condition that leads people to be able to remember an abnormally large number of their life experiences in vivid detail. There are two defining characteristics of hyperthymesia: spending an excessive amount of time thinking about one's past, and displaying an extraordinary ability to recall specific events from one's past.
Lethologica - when you think of something but the word for it escapes you. The phenomenon of failing to retrieve a word or term from memory, combined with partial recall and the feeling that retrieval is imminent. The phenomenon's name comes from the saying, "It's on the tip of my tongue." The tip of the tongue phenomenon reveals that lexical access occurs in stages.
Nescience - lack of knowledge or awareness. From the combination of the Latin prefix ne-, meaning "not," and scire, a verb meaning ‘to know.’
Noogenesis - the emergence and evolution of intelligence. Noo-, nous, from the ancient Greek νόος, is a term that currently encompasses the meanings: "mind, intelligence, intellect, reason; wisdom; insight, intuition, thought." The most widespread interpretation is thought to be "the emergence of mind.
Paralogize - to draw conclusions that do not follow logically from a given set of assumptions.
Paramnesia - memory-based delusion or confabulation, or an inability to distinguish between real and fantasy memories. Also, an inability to remember the meaning of common words. There are three main varieties:
Parry - to evade with a clever answer. From the late 17th century: probably representing French parez! ‘ward off!’, imperative of parer, from Italian parare meaning ‘ward off’.
Perspicacity - the quality of having a ready insight into things; shrewdness. A clarity of vision or intellect which provides a deep understanding and insight. It takes the concept of wisdom deeper in the sense that it denotes a keenness of sense and intelligence applied to insight. Another definition refers to it as the "ability to recognize subtle differences between similar objects or ideas". It has also been described as a deeper level of internalization. Perspicacity is different from acuity, which also describes a keen insight, since it does not include physical abilities such as sight or hearing.
Phronesis (Ancient Greek: φρόνησῐς, romanized: phrónēsis) is an ancient Greek word for a type of wisdom or intelligence. It is more specifically a type of wisdom relevant to practical action, implying both good judgement and excellence of character and habits, sometimes referred to as "practical virtue". Phronesis was a common topic of discussion in ancient Greek philosophy.
Pleonasm - is the use of more words or parts of words than are necessary or sufficient for clear expression: for example black darkness or burning fire. It can mean a word or phrase which is useless, clichéd, or repetitive, but also simply an unremarkable use of idiom. Sometimes it serves the same function as rhetorical repetition to reinforce an idea, contention or question. It can serve as a redundancy check; if a word is unknown, misunderstood, misheard, or if there is interference in the communication, it can help ensure that the meaning is conveyed even if some of the words are lost.
Polymath (Greek: πολυμαθής, polymathēs, meaning ‘having learned much,’ Latin: homo universalis, meaning ‘universal man’) is an individual whose knowledge spans a significant number of subjects, who is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve tough problems. The earliest recorded use of the term in English is from 1624. Polymaths include the great scholars and thinkers of the Islamic Golden Age, the period of Renaissance and the Enlightenment, who excelled at several fields in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and the arts. A basic tenet of Renaissance humanism is that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, this leads to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible.
Two associated concepts of the polymath are the specialist and the dilettante. The specialist demonstrates depth but lacks breadth of knowledge. The dilettante demonstrates superficial breadth but tends to acquire skills merely for their own sake without regard to understanding the broader applications or implications and without integrating it.
Qualia - are defined as individual instances of subjective, conscious experience. Examples of qualia include the perceived sensation of pain, the taste of wine, the redness of an evening sky. The focus is on beliefs about the experience rather than what it is directly like to be experiencing. The ways things seem to us. It is ineffable; that is, they cannot be communicated, or apprehended by any means other than direct experience. And it is intrinsic; that is, they are non-relational properties, which do not change depending on the experience's relation to other things.
Recondite - adjective that basically means hard for the average mind to understand. Difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge. In the same family as "abstruse," "esoteric" recondite is a very serious word that you could use to describe obscure philosophy books or high level mathematical theory.
To seek knowledge we must readTo read we must thinkTo think we must understand To understand we must share
Anagnorisis (Ancient Greek: ἀναγνώρισις) comes from a literary perspective and it is associated with the word epiphany. Anagnorisis is a moment in a literary work when a character makes a critical discovery. Anagnorisis originally meant recognition in its Greek context, not only of a person but also of what that person stood for. Anagnorisis is the hero's sudden awareness of a real situation, the realisation of things as they stood, and finally, their insight into a relationship with an often antagonistic character in tragedy.
Aristotle defined anagnorisis as "a change from ignorance to knowledge, producing love or hate between the persons destined by the poet for good or bad fortune.
It is often discussed along with Aristotle's concept of catharsis. An epiphany (from the ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphanea, meaning ‘manifestation, striking appearance’) is an experience of a sudden and striking realization. Generally the term is used to describe scientific breakthrough, religious or philosophical discoveries, but it can apply in any enlightening situation in which realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective.
Anoesis - The reception of impressions or sensations (by the brain) without any intellectual understanding or involving intellectual or cognitive processes. Emotions are sometimes considered anoetic. It describes a state of knowledge or memory in which there is no consciousness of knowing or remembering. Anoetic consciousness is a corresponding kind of “unknowing knowing” in which one is aware of external stimuli but not of interpreting them. It is lacking the capacity for understanding or concentrated thought. This meaning, originally applied to intellectual disability, is no longer common.
- As if from an Ancient Greek etymon of the form *ἀνοησις (*anoēsis, meaning “lack of intelligence, lack of understanding”); compare the English noesis and the Ancient Greek ἀνόητος (anóētos, “inconceivable”).
Aphasia - the inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions. The difficulties of people with aphasia can range from occasional trouble finding words, to losing the ability to speak, read, or write; intelligence, however, is unaffected. One characteristic is anomia, which is a difficulty in finding the correct word. Some confuse aphasia with dysphasia. Technically, dysphasia means impaired language and aphasia means lack of language.
Antinomy - refers to a real or apparent mutual incompatibility of two laws. It is a term used in logic. A logical contradiction.
- From the Greek ἀντί, antí, meaning ‘against, in opposition to’ and νόμος, nómos, meaning ‘law’
Connaissance - French for knowledge. From Old French conoissance, meaning ‘knowledge’ from Late Latin cognōscentia meaning ‘knowledge’
Doublethink - the acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, especially as a result of political indoctrination. One is expected to accept as true that which is clearly false, or to simultaneously accept two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in contravention to one's own memories or sense of reality. Doublethink is related to, but differs from, hypocrisy.
- From 1949: coined by George Orwell in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the book doublethink is explained as being able to control your memories, to be able to manually forget something, then to forget about forgetting.
Efficacious - capable of having the desired result or effect; effective as a means, measure, remedy.
- The word efficacious is made up of the Latin efficere meaning ‘accomplish’ and the suffix -ious meaning ‘full of.’ First recorded in 1520–30; is also from the Latin efficāci- (stem of efficax ) meaning ‘effectual.’ Something that's efficacious is full of accomplishment.
Honne (本音), is a Japanese word that refers to what we really think in our hearts: our true opinions, thoughts, and desires. Honne is the "real voice" of an individual. Honne may be contrary to what is expected by society or what is required according to one's position and circumstances. Tatemae (建前), meanwhile, refers to the behavior that we adopt in public, according to what is socially accepted or not by society. The word translates as ‘built in front", façade’. In many cases tatemae leads to outright telling of lies in order to avoid exposing the true inward feelings. Hiding what you really think or "putting on an act" in public may often be misunderstood by Westerners - we tend to think of it as hypocrisy. Japan has a different culture and it’s based on courtesy and formality. Public failure and the disapproval of others are seen as shame and reduced social standing, so it is common to avoid direct confrontation or disagreement in most social contexts. Social norms dictate that one should attempt to minimize discord; failure to do so might be seen as insulting or aggressive. For this reason, the Japanese go to great lengths to avoid conflict, especially within the context of large groups. Tatemae and honne, however, are not uniquely Japanese. There might not be a direct single word translation for honne and tatemae in other languages, but the two-word descriptions in English, "private mind" and "public mind", come close.
Hyperthymesia - a condition that leads people to be able to remember an abnormally large number of their life experiences in vivid detail. There are two defining characteristics of hyperthymesia: spending an excessive amount of time thinking about one's past, and displaying an extraordinary ability to recall specific events from one's past.
- The word "hyperthymesia" derives from Ancient Greek: hyper- meaning ‘excessive’ and thymesis meaning ‘remembering’
Lethologica - when you think of something but the word for it escapes you. The phenomenon of failing to retrieve a word or term from memory, combined with partial recall and the feeling that retrieval is imminent. The phenomenon's name comes from the saying, "It's on the tip of my tongue." The tip of the tongue phenomenon reveals that lexical access occurs in stages.
- The term "tip of the tongue" is borrowed from colloquial usage, and possibly a calque from the French phrase avoir le mot sur le bout de la langue ("having the word on the tip of the tongue").
Nescience - lack of knowledge or awareness. From the combination of the Latin prefix ne-, meaning "not," and scire, a verb meaning ‘to know.’
Noogenesis - the emergence and evolution of intelligence. Noo-, nous, from the ancient Greek νόος, is a term that currently encompasses the meanings: "mind, intelligence, intellect, reason; wisdom; insight, intuition, thought." The most widespread interpretation is thought to be "the emergence of mind.
Paralogize - to draw conclusions that do not follow logically from a given set of assumptions.
- First recorded in 1590–1600; from Medieval Latin paralogizāre, from Greek paralogízesthai meaning “to reason falsely,”
Paramnesia - memory-based delusion or confabulation, or an inability to distinguish between real and fantasy memories. Also, an inability to remember the meaning of common words. There are three main varieties:
- Simple memory deceptions - when one remembers events that are imagined or hallucinated in fantasy or dream as genuine or real. Common in amnesic people and those in paranoid states.
- Associative memory deceptions - when a person meeting someone for the first time claims to have seen him on previous occasions. This has been renamed reduplicative paramnesia or simply reduplication.
- Identifying paramnesia, in which a novel situation is experienced as duplicating an earlier situation in every detail; this is now known as déjà vu or paramnesia tout court. The term confabulation denotes the production of false recollections generally.
Parry - to evade with a clever answer. From the late 17th century: probably representing French parez! ‘ward off!’, imperative of parer, from Italian parare meaning ‘ward off’.
Perspicacity - the quality of having a ready insight into things; shrewdness. A clarity of vision or intellect which provides a deep understanding and insight. It takes the concept of wisdom deeper in the sense that it denotes a keenness of sense and intelligence applied to insight. Another definition refers to it as the "ability to recognize subtle differences between similar objects or ideas". It has also been described as a deeper level of internalization. Perspicacity is different from acuity, which also describes a keen insight, since it does not include physical abilities such as sight or hearing.
- Perspicacity ultimately comes from the mid 16th century Late Latin noun perspicācitās meaning “sharp-sightedness, discernment’
Phronesis (Ancient Greek: φρόνησῐς, romanized: phrónēsis) is an ancient Greek word for a type of wisdom or intelligence. It is more specifically a type of wisdom relevant to practical action, implying both good judgement and excellence of character and habits, sometimes referred to as "practical virtue". Phronesis was a common topic of discussion in ancient Greek philosophy.
Pleonasm - is the use of more words or parts of words than are necessary or sufficient for clear expression: for example black darkness or burning fire. It can mean a word or phrase which is useless, clichéd, or repetitive, but also simply an unremarkable use of idiom. Sometimes it serves the same function as rhetorical repetition to reinforce an idea, contention or question. It can serve as a redundancy check; if a word is unknown, misunderstood, misheard, or if there is interference in the communication, it can help ensure that the meaning is conveyed even if some of the words are lost.
- From the Ancient Greek πλεονασμός, pleonasmós, from πλέον, pleon, meaning 'more; too much')
Polymath (Greek: πολυμαθής, polymathēs, meaning ‘having learned much,’ Latin: homo universalis, meaning ‘universal man’) is an individual whose knowledge spans a significant number of subjects, who is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve tough problems. The earliest recorded use of the term in English is from 1624. Polymaths include the great scholars and thinkers of the Islamic Golden Age, the period of Renaissance and the Enlightenment, who excelled at several fields in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and the arts. A basic tenet of Renaissance humanism is that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, this leads to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible.
- This is expressed in the term Renaissance Man, which is often applied to the gifted people of that age who sought to develop their abilities in all areas of accomplishment: intellectual, artistic, social, physical, and spiritual.
- Leonardo da Vinci has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man of unquenchable curiosity and feverishly inventive imagination.
Two associated concepts of the polymath are the specialist and the dilettante. The specialist demonstrates depth but lacks breadth of knowledge. The dilettante demonstrates superficial breadth but tends to acquire skills merely for their own sake without regard to understanding the broader applications or implications and without integrating it.
Qualia - are defined as individual instances of subjective, conscious experience. Examples of qualia include the perceived sensation of pain, the taste of wine, the redness of an evening sky. The focus is on beliefs about the experience rather than what it is directly like to be experiencing. The ways things seem to us. It is ineffable; that is, they cannot be communicated, or apprehended by any means other than direct experience. And it is intrinsic; that is, they are non-relational properties, which do not change depending on the experience's relation to other things.
- The term qualia derives from the Latin neuter plural form (qualia) of the Latin adjective quālis (Latin pronunciation: [ˈkʷaːlɪs]) meaning "of what sort" or "of what kind" in a specific instance, such as "what it is like to taste a specific apple, this particular apple now".
Recondite - adjective that basically means hard for the average mind to understand. Difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge. In the same family as "abstruse," "esoteric" recondite is a very serious word that you could use to describe obscure philosophy books or high level mathematical theory.
- From the mid 17th century: from Latin reconditus meaning ‘hidden, put away’, past participle of recondere, from re- ‘back’ + condere meaning ‘put together, secrete’
To seek knowledge we must readTo read we must thinkTo think we must understand To understand we must share
