Literary notes about Comprehension (AI summary)
Authors employ the term "comprehension" to denote both the capacity to grasp complex ideas and the limitations inherent in human understanding. In historical and political texts, it is used to suggest that what lies beyond our comprehension may be unimportant or inaccessible to our limited faculties [1, 2]. Conversely, in literary narratives and psychological treatises, it can capture the nuanced process of deciphering emotions or the inner workings of the mind [3, 4, 5]. In works of philosophy and sociology, "comprehension" is portrayed as a foundational yet imperfect mechanism, one that underlies our ability to synthesize and appreciate the world, while simultaneously highlighting the persistent gap between knowledge and understanding [6, 7, 8]. This multifaceted deployment underscores its role as both an intellectual tool and a metaphor for human limitation.
- But be they more or less, Quod supra nos nihil ad nos (what is beyond our comprehension does not concern us).
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - For that exceeds the comprehension of our limited capacities.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume - Clinical observation yields several suggestions for the comprehension of neurotic fear, the significance of which I shall discuss with you.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - But as the minutes passed the need of throwing herself on his comprehension became more urgent: she could not bear the weight of her misery alone.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - And then again the eyes of the two women met—this time clung together in a look of dawning comprehension, of growing horror.
— from The Best Short Stories of 1917, and the Yearbook of the American Short Story - Gibbon's method of arrangement, though on the whole most favorable to the clear comprehension of the events, leads likewise to apparent inaccuracy.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Of course, appreciation and comprehension develop in quite different degrees.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - Wherein the main point to be considered is this: the higher faculty of comprehension embraces the lower, while the lower cannot rise to the higher.
— from The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
