The word sapience is derived from the Latin word sapientia, meaning wisdom. Related to this word is the Latin verb sapere, which means "to taste, to be wise, to know"; the present participle of sapere forms part of Homo sapiens, the Latin binomial nomenclature created by Carolus Linnaeus to describe the human species. Linnaeus had originally given humans the species name of diurnus, meaning man of the day. But he later decided that the dominating feature of humans was wisdom, hence application of the name sapiens. His chosen biological name was intended to emphasize man's uniqueness and separation from the rest of the animal kingdom.
See also
- Sentience
- Self-awareness
- Metacognition - considered to be one of the definitions of sapience
Also used as a Christian/fore name in the late 16th century
References
External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Saturday July 19, 2008 at 06:47:27 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2009, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
