Erudition
From Free net encyclopedia
The word erudition came into Middle English from Latin. A scholar is erudite (Latin eruditus) when instruction and reading followed by digestion and contemplation have effaced all rudeness ("e- (ex-) + rudis"), that is to say smoothed away all raw, untrained incivility. Erudition is the depth, polish and breadth that is applied to education from further readings and understanding of literary works. The Latin word educare means to "lead out" from ignorance; hence the educated person has been led to think critically and with deductive logic. The erudite person has additionally become familiar with some more arcane information, has a deeper familiarity with the literature on the subject and a broader intellectual horizon.
Word meaning suffers entropy after years of vulgar usage. In this way erudition has come to mean any learned person. They are not the same. An erudite person is necessarily learned but a learned person is not necessarily erudite. The critical difference is that the erudite person strove to overcome rudeness while the merely learned did not, herein lies the virtue. Necessarily the erudite person at one time was “rude,” but was able to overcome. Past rudeness is an inherent quality of the erudite person. Thus, only the villain can be erudite.
An erudite person will gain insight on particular subjects directly through books and study, rather than by following a course or scholarship in the subject. The famous Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi was erudite: he read and studied the classics on his own, and was deeply influenced by many philosophers. Among the most erudite of Roman writers was Marcus Terentius Varro. Among the most erudite English essay-writers is Sir Thomas Browne.
A jurist is one who is learned, and knows the law intimately and thoroughly; by comparison, an erudite jurist also knows the history of the law in detail, as well as the laws of other cultures.
Erudition is evident in a literary work when an erudite writer possesses a general knowledge spanning many different fields. When such universal scholars are also at the forefront of several fields they are sometimes called "polymaths". When they are not, or are only, at the forefront of individual fields (sometimes in a figurehead, or leadership capacity), they are sometimes called "polyhistors."