Nescience

Nescience comes from the Latin ne (not) plus scienta (knowledge widely known to be certainly true).

But there is a second root: Science, the Latin scindere implying "to cut open" typical a specimen to investigate and gain knowledge beyond the visually obvious evidence.

Humans are perhaps the most vulnerable infants as well as the most successful species. Throughout human history, people have experienced numerous challenges that proved to be almost fatal.

Modern civilization exists because our ancestors not only survived many potentially lethal events, they also transmitted the strategic and tactical skills with which they were able to address and exploit the opportunities such disruptions caused. These survival stories are often embedded in myths and legends that are clearly allegorical rather than metaphorical.

Nescience is associated with the avoidance of unpleasant emotions such as fear, sadness, anger, vulnerability. For example, witnessing an autopsy for the first time is notoriously difficult.

Many jurisdictions now demand mediation as a precondition of contentious court action. It is the responsibility of the advocates of litigants to ensure clients are capable of understanding the implications of informed consent, especially in cases concerning of people who are young or may have learning difficulties.

There are several ways young people deal with risk which, if successful, may become habitual:

• Hiding under the bedclothes can become habitual elective nescience (ignore the danger).
• Their childish tactics are avoidance by either buck passing or mitigation often followed by surrender to paternal retribution, possibly leading to habitual moral desert.
• The mature response to risk is to assume responsibility in an adult-to-adult style relationship of transactional analysis