English edit

Etymology edit

From Latin nescientia, from the present participle of nescire.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

nescience (countable and uncountable, plural nesciences)

  1. The absence of knowledge, especially of orthodox beliefs.
    Better to have honest nescience than to have militant ignorance.
    • 1911, Ralph Barton Perry, “Notes on the Philosophy of Henri Bergson”, in The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, volume 8, number 26, page 720:
      To lapse from knowledge into nescience is always possible—there is no law of God or man forbidding it.
    • 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae:
      Algernon, in a condition of masculine nescience, lets himself become engaged to a woman of whom he knows nothing.
  2. (philosophy) The doctrine that nothing is actually knowable.
    • 1895, J. G. Schurman, “Agnosticism”, in The Philosophical Review, volume 4, number 3, page 244:
      The theory of nescience is but the obverse of the fact of science.

Related terms edit

Translations edit

Further reading edit

French edit

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /nɛ.sjɑ̃s/, /ne.sjɑ̃s/

Noun edit

nescience f (plural nesciences)

  1. nescience

Further reading edit