Naivety (also spelled naïvety), naiveness, or naïveté is the state of being naive. It refers to an apparent or actual lack of
experience
Experience refers to Consciousness, conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience i ...
and sophistication, often describing a neglect of
pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that views language and thought as tools for prediction, problem solving, and action, rather than describing, representing, or mirroring reality. Pragmatists contend that most philosophical topics� ...
in favor of
moral idealism
Ethical idealism, which is also referred to by terms such as moral idealism, principled idealism, and other expressions, is a Philosophy, philosophical framework based on holding onto specifically defined Ideal (ethics), ideals in the context o ...
. A ''naïve'' may be called a ''naïf''.
Etymology
In its early use, the word ''naïve'' meant "natural or innocent", and did not connote ineptitude. As a French
adjective
An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...
, it is spelled ''naïve'', for
feminine
Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...
nouns, and ''naïf'', for
masculine
Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some beh ...
nouns. As a French noun, it is spelled ''naïveté''.
It is sometimes spelled "naïve" with a
diaeresis, but as an unitalicized English word, "naive" is now the more usual spelling. "naïf" often represents the French masculine, but has a secondary meaning as
an artistic style. "Naïve" is pronounced as two syllables, in the French manner, and with the stress on the second one.
Culture
The naïf appears as a cultural type in two main forms. On the one hand, there is 'the satirical naïf, such as
Candide
( , ) is a French satire written by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment, first published in 1759. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled ''Candide: or, All for the Best'' (1759); ''Candide: or, The ...
'.
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century.
Frye gained international fame with his first book, ''Fearful Symmetr ...
suggested we might call it "the ''ingénu'' form, after
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...
's dialogue of that name. "Here an outsider ... grants none of the premises which make the absurdities of society look logical to those accustomed to them", and serves essentially as a prism to carry the satirical message.
Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard (, ; ; – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist and philosopher with an interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as well as his formulat ...
indeed, drawing on his
Situationist
The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...
roots, sought to position himself as ingénu in everyday life: "I play the role of the Danube peasant: someone who knows nothing but suspects something is wrong ... I like being in the position of the primitive ... ''playing naïve''".
On the other hand, there is the artistic "naïf - all responsiveness and seeming availability".
Here 'the naïf offers himself as being in process of formation, in search of values and models...always about to adopt some traditional "mature" temperament' - in a perpetual adolescent
moratorium. Such instances of "the naïf as a cultural image... offered themselves as essentially responsive to others and open to every invitation... established their identity in indeterminacy".
See also
Notes and references
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naive
Perception
Psychological concepts