A notion is a concept.
The term notion , derived from the Latin notio , refers to the representation or knowledge that one has of an element . The use of the concept is quite broad and can have different nuances according to the context .
Concept y notion, de hecho, pueden emplearse como sinónimos. Si alguien pretende explicar la dog notion o el dog concept, por ejemplo, se encargará de hacer referencia a aquello que designa el vocablo: un animal mamífero, cuadrúpedo, etc.
What is a notion
Notion is also a vague idea about a subject . This is knowledge that lacks depth and only allows an approximation of the matter. A person who has an idea about football , to cite one example, knows that it is a sport that pits two teams made up of eleven players each. However, he does not understand how the offside law is applied since he does not know in detail everything related to football.
In a general sense, human beings have notions of many topics and specialize in a few. A doctor is an expert in the human body and everything related to health, but probably only knows basic or elementary things about architecture or music, to mention one possibility.
Notions, meanwhile, can be knowledge that is taken for granted or assimilated . A teacher, when explaining a certain issue, assumes that her students already have prior notions. In this framework, it is possible to teach a class on the digestive system if the students have notions about the organs that make it up.
A notion can be diffuse knowledge.
A diffuse knowledge
If we summarize what has been said so far, we can notice that this word is part of a group that is relatively difficult to define, particularly because it designates diffuse, incomplete or vague knowledge . Precisely having some notion about a topic is the same as saying "having a general or elementary idea", "knowing something or the minimum about it"; However, as also mentioned above, in some contexts this term does not represent insufficient knowledge , but rather fundamental or necessary for a given situation.
The line between mastery of a subject and lack of sufficient knowledge is very thin, since in many cases it depends on the context. Let's look at an example in which this characteristic of the word notion can be graphed: if a person asks a friend to help them configure their email account and the friend responds "I have basic knowledge of computing", it is likely that they can do the task successfully; However, a software development company looking for a programmer would not find a suitable profile in him.
In its etymology we find precisely the verb to know , as well as the nouns conception and idea . As with the term notion , these can also be used to denote a certain skill or a mastery of a discipline or a subject, so that their synonyms have the same kind of duality. In this list we must include rudiments , foundations and principles .
The notion as consciousness
On the other hand, the word notion can be used in a very different sense, which is close to the definition of consciousness : relatively defined and spontaneous knowledge of a situation or of reality itself. This can be seen, for example, in the expression losing track of time ; It means failing to perceive the current date, or to clearly understand the flow of time.
This can happen for a number of reasons, and is not always worrying. After fainting, we should take precautions, while absent-minded people often lose track of time , but this is not a symptom of a problem but a trait of their personality.