Naïve
Encyclopedia
Naivety is the state of being naive—having or showing a lack of experience
, understanding
or sophistication. One who is naive may be called a naif.
; naïf is used with masculine nouns.) The dots above the i are a diaeresis (see also Ï
). As an unitalicized English word, “naive” is now the more usual spelling, although “naïve” is unidiomatic rather than incorrect; “naïf” often represents the French masculine, but has a secondary meaning as an artistic style. “Naive” is now normally pronounced as two syllables, with the stress on the second, in the French manner.
The noun form can be written naivety, naïvety, naïveté, naïvete, or naiveté.
, a naive algorithm
is one that is correct and simple, but not efficient, e.g. bubble sort
for sorting
or linear search
to find a value in a list.
'. Northrop Frye
suggested we might call it 'the ingenu form, after Voltaire
'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 indeed, drawing on his Situationist roots, sought to position himself as ingenu 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'.
During the Sixties, 'the naifs turned toward mysticism and Eastern religions', feeding into the Hippie
movement. 'Hippie culture, bastard of the beat generation out of pop, was much like a folk culture - oral, naive, communal, its aphorisms ("Make love, not war", "turn on, tune in, drop out") intuited, not rationalized'. Its druggie protagonists 'had a childlike wonder that we could produce such weirdness from ourselves...assumed with the bravado of youth that we'd make it back to tell of what we saw'.
A "recovering" naïf might have to learn that 'I had to stop presenting myself as a blank canvass to others. I was allowing people to paint their fantasies on to me so that when I finally let them know what I was like...I was already in too deep for the extrication to be painless'.
, Katherine Mansfield
, and Jean Rhys
all wrote naïvely'. Alongside the literary 'survival of a tender, untried female naif from modern Gothic
tradition',, the role remains a perennial possibility in everyday life. Often in a family 'the youngest sister, the most undeveloped one, plays out the very human story of the naive woman. The naive woman tacitly agrees to remain "not knowing"'.
Yet any woman may adopt the position in a relationship, so that 'from the moment she uses the word love, there is the birth of naivety': she 'put her intelligence to sleep...the knowing, doubting, sophisticated [side]', exchanging it for ' the power to create through naivety '
's terminology, the naif is very close to 'the Schlemazl...a man who gives too much away'; as well as to the game of "Peasant". Here the protagonist 'is a celebrated poet, painter, philanthropist or scientist, and naĩve young women frequently travel a long way...so that they can sit adoringly at his feet and romanticize his imperfections'.
considered that 'being psycho-analysed is essentially...a sort of intellectual primitivism'; and that many of its standard techniques can be seen as directed at artificially creating or re-creating a state of naivety. Thus free association
means that 'the patient has to refuse himself the conventional satisfactions of narrative...has to become a very bad story-teller and make a nonsense of his life. Giving himself up to another person's punctuation, the patient recreates something of the process of being parented'.
Conversely, the therapist is enjoined to 'attempt to understand something from a position of not-knowing...starting every session "without memory, desire or understanding"': sets out 'trying to listen as naively as possible...[to] open to the phenomena of therapy freshly, naively'.
Experience
Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
, understanding
Understanding
Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object....
or sophistication. One who is naive may be called a naif.
Etymology
In early use, the word "naive" meant natural or innocent, and did not connote ineptitude. As a French word, it is spelled naïve or naïf. (French adjectives have grammatical genderGrammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
; naïf is used with masculine nouns.) The dots above the i are a diaeresis (see also Ï
Ï
', lowercase ', is a symbol used in various languages written with the Latin alphabet and in Ukrainian language which is written with the Cyrillic based Ukrainian alphabet; it can be read as the letter I with diaeresis or I-umlaut....
). As an unitalicized English word, “naive” is now the more usual spelling, although “naïve” is unidiomatic rather than incorrect; “naïf” often represents the French masculine, but has a secondary meaning as an artistic style. “Naive” is now normally pronounced as two syllables, with the stress on the second, in the French manner.
The noun form can be written naivety, naïvety, naïveté, naïvete, or naiveté.
Science
In the sciences, and technical professions, it is used to refer to a lack of experience or avoiding the obvious with a specific stimulus (e.g., an image, a drug, a method for solving math problems) and does not carry broader negative connotations about the individual. In computer scienceComputer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, a naive algorithm
Algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
is one that is correct and simple, but not efficient, e.g. bubble sort
Bubble sort
Bubble sort, also known as sinking sort, is a simple sorting algorithm that works by repeatedly stepping through the list to be sorted, comparing each pair of adjacent items and swapping them if they are in the wrong order. The pass through the list is repeated until no swaps are needed, which...
for sorting
Sorting
Sorting is any process of arranging items in some sequence and/or in different sets, and accordingly, it has two common, yet distinct meanings:# ordering: arranging items of the same kind, class, nature, etc...
or linear search
Linear search
In computer science, linear search or sequential search is a method for finding a particular value in a list, that consists of checking every one of its elements, one at a time and in sequence, until the desired one is found....
to find a value in a list.
Culture
The naif appears as a cultural type in two main forms. On the one hand, there is 'the satirical naïf, such as CandideCandide
Candide, ou l'Optimisme is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled Candide: or, All for the Best ; Candide: or, The Optimist ; and Candide: or, Optimism...
'. Northrop Frye
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye, was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century....
suggested we might call it 'the ingenu form, after Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
'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 indeed, drawing on his Situationist roots, sought to position himself as ingenu 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'.
During the Sixties, 'the naifs turned toward mysticism and Eastern religions', feeding into the Hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
movement. 'Hippie culture, bastard of the beat generation out of pop, was much like a folk culture - oral, naive, communal, its aphorisms ("Make love, not war", "turn on, tune in, drop out") intuited, not rationalized'. Its druggie protagonists 'had a childlike wonder that we could produce such weirdness from ourselves...assumed with the bravado of youth that we'd make it back to tell of what we saw'.
A "recovering" naïf might have to learn that 'I had to stop presenting myself as a blank canvass to others. I was allowing people to paint their fantasies on to me so that when I finally let them know what I was like...I was already in too deep for the extrication to be painless'.
Women
The naif represents 'a common intellectual type among women...Rosamond LehmannRosamond Lehmann
Rosamond Nina Lehmann, CBE , was a British novelist. Her first novel, Dusty Answer , was a succès de scandale; she subsequently became established in the literary world and intimate with members of the Bloomsbury set...
, Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and...
, and Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys , born Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams, was a mid 20th-century novelist from Dominica. Educated from the age of 16 in Great Britain, she is best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea , written as a "prequel" to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.-Early life:Rhys was born in Roseau, Dominica...
all wrote naïvely'. Alongside the literary 'survival of a tender, untried female naif from modern Gothic
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...
tradition',, the role remains a perennial possibility in everyday life. Often in a family 'the youngest sister, the most undeveloped one, plays out the very human story of the naive woman. The naive woman tacitly agrees to remain "not knowing"'.
Yet any woman may adopt the position in a relationship, so that 'from the moment she uses the word love, there is the birth of naivety': she 'put her intelligence to sleep...the knowing, doubting, sophisticated [side]', exchanging it for ' the power to create through naivety '
Transactional Analysis
In Eric BerneEric Berne
Eric Berne was a Canadian-born psychiatrist best known as the creator of transactional analysis and the author of Games People Play.-Background and education:...
's terminology, the naif is very close to 'the Schlemazl...a man who gives too much away'; as well as to the game of "Peasant". Here the protagonist 'is a celebrated poet, painter, philanthropist or scientist, and naĩve young women frequently travel a long way...so that they can sit adoringly at his feet and romanticize his imperfections'.
Psychotherapy
Doris LessingDoris Lessing
Doris May Lessing CH is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos....
considered that 'being psycho-analysed is essentially...a sort of intellectual primitivism'; and that many of its standard techniques can be seen as directed at artificially creating or re-creating a state of naivety. Thus free association
Free association (psychology)
Free association is a technique used in psychoanalysis which was originally devised by Sigmund Freud out of the hypnotic method of his mentor and coworker, Josef Breuer....
means that 'the patient has to refuse himself the conventional satisfactions of narrative...has to become a very bad story-teller and make a nonsense of his life. Giving himself up to another person's punctuation, the patient recreates something of the process of being parented'.
Conversely, the therapist is enjoined to 'attempt to understand something from a position of not-knowing...starting every session "without memory, desire or understanding"': sets out 'trying to listen as naively as possible...[to] open to the phenomena of therapy freshly, naively'.