We recognize more than we know. Yes, there is a difference. Take our sense of what it means to be courageous. What is courage?
Don’t worry if you can’t define the word beyond a Merriam-Webster version of its meaning. Here’s that version if you’re interested: “the ability to do something that you know is difficult or dangerous” or “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.” See, even the lexicographers have difficulty, so they give us two definitions. For the folks at Merriam-Webster courage is both ability and a type of strength. You want to take a stab at the definition? Go ahead. I’ll give you a few moments…
Nothing? Don’t care? Who cares? Actually, the definition of courage isn’t my focus. I would rather center on what your mind does when it encounters courage (assuming that there is such a phenomenon). You recognize it even in the absence of a clear definition. Again, don’t worry. You’re not the first to run into the wall between recognition and knowledge, and you could get around this whole matter by simply defining recognition as knowledge. The word does contain cognition, which our friendly lexicographers define as “conscious mental activities: the activities of thinking, understanding, learning, and remembering.” Re simply means “back.”
Plato broaches the subject of courage in Laches, a book in which Socrates reveals our lack of knowledge. Yes, OUR lack of knowledge. Socrates discusses courage with Laches and Nicias, and demonstrates the incompleteness of their definitions of courage. But maybe almost any intangible is incompletely known though fully recognized: Love, hate, folly, and even wisdom.
In our quest for knowledge we are often left with only our ability to recognize. Yes, you can recognize courage, but that holds as long as you don’t have to define it.
Don’t worry if you can’t define the word beyond a Merriam-Webster version of its meaning. Here’s that version if you’re interested: “the ability to do something that you know is difficult or dangerous” or “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.” See, even the lexicographers have difficulty, so they give us two definitions. For the folks at Merriam-Webster courage is both ability and a type of strength. You want to take a stab at the definition? Go ahead. I’ll give you a few moments…
Nothing? Don’t care? Who cares? Actually, the definition of courage isn’t my focus. I would rather center on what your mind does when it encounters courage (assuming that there is such a phenomenon). You recognize it even in the absence of a clear definition. Again, don’t worry. You’re not the first to run into the wall between recognition and knowledge, and you could get around this whole matter by simply defining recognition as knowledge. The word does contain cognition, which our friendly lexicographers define as “conscious mental activities: the activities of thinking, understanding, learning, and remembering.” Re simply means “back.”
Plato broaches the subject of courage in Laches, a book in which Socrates reveals our lack of knowledge. Yes, OUR lack of knowledge. Socrates discusses courage with Laches and Nicias, and demonstrates the incompleteness of their definitions of courage. But maybe almost any intangible is incompletely known though fully recognized: Love, hate, folly, and even wisdom.
In our quest for knowledge we are often left with only our ability to recognize. Yes, you can recognize courage, but that holds as long as you don’t have to define it.
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