A post from the office of the Unit One Chief Scientist, Proton Bletchley.
What is cogitation?
Let’s begin by looking at the dictionary.
cogitation n. c.1200, “thought, idea, notion,” from Old French cogitacion “thought, consideration, reflection,” from Latin cogitationem (nominative cogitatio), noun of action from past participle stem of cogitare “to think, reflect, consider, turn over in the mind,” apparently from co-agitare, from com- “together” (see co-) + agitare, here in a sense of “to turn over in the mind,” literally “to put in constant motion, drive, impel,” frequentative of agere “to move, drive” (see agitation).” Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
At Unit One, people cogitate. They may even ponder. What they don’t do is philosophize. The reason is not just the difficulty in spelling the word, nor is it the fact that philosophy, along with kayaking and drumming, is the domain of Charles Justice, http://earthjustice.blogspot.ca/
What is philosophy?
Again, let’s begin by looking at the dictionary.
Philosophy n. ca.1300, “knowledge, body of knowledge,” from Old French filosofie “philosophy, knowledge” (12c., Modern French philosophie) and directly from Latin philosophia and from Greek philosophia “love of knowledge, pursuit of wisdom; systematic investigation,” from philo- “loving” (see philo- ) + sophia “knowledge, wisdom,” from sophis “wise, learned;” of unknown origin.
Cogitation vs Philosophy
When one philosophizes, there is an expectation that ideas will refer to the works of a whole bunch of old geezers who, through the millenniums, have thought and written about fundamental issues. The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, E3 (2005), defines philosophy as: “A study that attempts to discover the fundamental principles of the sciences, the arts, and the world that the sciences and arts deal with; the word philosophy is from the Greek for “love of wisdom.” Philosophy has many branches that explore principles of specific areas, such as knowledge ( epistemology ), reasoning ( logic ), being in general ( metaphysics ), beauty ( aesthetics ), and human conduct ( ethics ).”
People at Unit One just aren’t (that) disciplined. There is no attempt to discover fundamental principles. People ponder and cogitate simply to make the world a better place.
| Mental activity | Sport | Other hobby | |
| Charles Justice | Philosophy | Kayaking | Drumming |
| Unit One | Cogitation | Surfing; Sparking | Mechatronics; Robotics |
Future Posts
In the future there will be additional blog posts featuring cogitations. Titles will take the form: [subject]: cogitations
Updates
If a topic is revisited, the post title will be followed by, E[integer], [date] so that people who follow the blog can receive updates. E stands for edition. It was decided that using V (for version) might be confused with V (for volume). Minor revisions, will not be given an edition number.