Post by t-bob on Feb 21, 2019 10:02:38 GMT -5
TABULA RASA
noun
1. a mind not yet affected by experiences, impressions, etc.
2. anything existing undisturbed in its original pure state.
Quotes
The notion that the brain is a tabula rasa that can be easily transformed by digital technology is, as yet, the stuff of science fiction. -- Richard A. Friedman, "The Big Myth About Teenage Anxiety," New York Times, September 7, 2018 The alarm wakes him, and he opens his eyes to a new day. He feels rested, reset, a tabula rasa. -- Lisa Genova, Inside the O'Briens, 2015
Origin
In Latin tabula rasa means “erased tablet, a tablet rubbed clean (of writing).” Tabula has many meanings: “flat board, plank, table, notice board, notice, game board, public document, deed, will.” For schoolchildren the schoolmaster’s command Manum dē tabulā "Hand(s) off the tablet!" meant “Pencils down!” Rasa is the past participle of radere “to scrape, scratch, shave, clip.” The inside surfaces of a folded wooden tablet were raised along the edges and filled with wax for writing. The wax could be erased by smoothing with the blunt end of a stylus (more correctly stilus) or by mild heat. The Latin phrase is a translation of Greek pinakìs ágraphos “tablet with nothing written on it, blank tablet,” from Aristotle’s De Anima (Greek Perì Psychês, “On the Soul): “What it [the mind] thinks must be in it just as characters may be said to be on a writing tablet (pinakìs) on which nothing is yet actually written (ágraphos).” Tabula rasa entered English in the 16th century
noun
1. a mind not yet affected by experiences, impressions, etc.
2. anything existing undisturbed in its original pure state.
Quotes
The notion that the brain is a tabula rasa that can be easily transformed by digital technology is, as yet, the stuff of science fiction. -- Richard A. Friedman, "The Big Myth About Teenage Anxiety," New York Times, September 7, 2018 The alarm wakes him, and he opens his eyes to a new day. He feels rested, reset, a tabula rasa. -- Lisa Genova, Inside the O'Briens, 2015
Origin
In Latin tabula rasa means “erased tablet, a tablet rubbed clean (of writing).” Tabula has many meanings: “flat board, plank, table, notice board, notice, game board, public document, deed, will.” For schoolchildren the schoolmaster’s command Manum dē tabulā "Hand(s) off the tablet!" meant “Pencils down!” Rasa is the past participle of radere “to scrape, scratch, shave, clip.” The inside surfaces of a folded wooden tablet were raised along the edges and filled with wax for writing. The wax could be erased by smoothing with the blunt end of a stylus (more correctly stilus) or by mild heat. The Latin phrase is a translation of Greek pinakìs ágraphos “tablet with nothing written on it, blank tablet,” from Aristotle’s De Anima (Greek Perì Psychês, “On the Soul): “What it [the mind] thinks must be in it just as characters may be said to be on a writing tablet (pinakìs) on which nothing is yet actually written (ágraphos).” Tabula rasa entered English in the 16th century
