The Tree of Akenning

inseminating, conceiving, and gestating knowledge

To ken the fruit, pay attention to the root.

Study the past to ken the future.

〰 Liä Tse 〰

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Ways of Knowing

We are in possession of certain akennings a priori,

and even the common sense is never without such.

〰 Immanuel Kant 〰

On his philosophy blog, Simon Kroll introduces the German word ~ Erkenntnis ~ to the English language. Erkenntnis, according to Kroll, has no equivalent in English to embrace the same body of meanings.

This can be said of many words. Expressions in one language only overlap partially with a term in another, which can make it hard to translate with precision what you want to say.

But the word Erkenntnis? Let’s see what insights this old and versatile verbiont reveals. — What stands out for me immediately is that this is the German word used for the Biblical Tree of Knowledge ~ known as Baum der Erkenntnis.

From this parallel usage you might conclude that knowledge means Erkenntnis, right? —Well, this is where it gets confusing.

In everyday language, knowledge can be translated as Wissen (= understanding, know-how, ken, hindsight), or Kenntnis (= knowing, acquaintance, information), depending on context. Nobody would consider using the word Erkenntnis as a translation for knowledge ~ unless you’re a philosopher, or talking about knowledge in the biblical sense.

In the monolingual German dictionary, Erkenntnis is listed ~ as a philosophical term ~ as a potential synonym for knowledge. The noun is formed from the verb erkennen (= to recognise, see, realise, spot, identify, diagnose, discover, perceive, be or become aware, distinguish, detect, register, reveal, catch, notice, discern, behold, recall, grasp, apprehend, ken [Scottish]).

Erkenntnis can be translated as insight, perception, awareness, finding, understanding, knowledge [in philosophy], cognition, realisation, gnosis, cognation, diagnosis, etc. depending on context.

Immanuel Kant (Prussian philosopher, 1724 – 1804) uses this word in the following quote (English translation above): “Wir sind im Besitze gewisser Erkenntnisse a priori und selbst der gemeine Verstand ist niemals ohne solche.”

As you may have spotted, in the translation I have introduced an unfamiliar English noun akenning in its plural form.

‘What on earth are akennings?’ you may have wondered….

If I told you that akenning is the best English translation I could find for the German Erkenntnis, would you believe me?

Or do you suspect that this word ~ akenning ~ is made up out of thin air?

The quote by Kant is usually translated as follows: “We possess certain a priori knowledge (or cognition), and even ordinary common sense is never without it,” and philosophers probably have an inkling of what is meant by that.

In common everyday parlance, Erkenntnis and knowledge are ways of knowing, but they don’t overlap that well in the use of the spoken or written word ~ as Simon Kroll observed correctly.

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Conception of Knowledge at Sea*

And Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bore a son.

〰 Genesis 〰

The German version of the Genesis account states that Adam erkannte (past tense of erkennen) his wife, followed by conception and the birth of a son.

This means, we are talking about knowing of an entirely different nature than the familiar contemporary use of either of the two words ~ Erkenntnis and knowledge (cognition). This is not about perception. It’s about conception and birth.

The first son conceived by and born to the first human couple via erkennen ~ a way of knowing ~ is not an exception. It’s the norm in the ancient usage of the words erkennen/ to know, and their Latin equivalents agnoscere, cognoscere.

English equivalent words ~ ken and kenning ~ do exist, although they are rare and mainly found in poetic use (or in Scottland). The Old English form âcennan [from Greek gignere = to beget, produce] takes us straight to the biblical sense of knowing.

In the Century Dictionary (page 3274) you can find some of the old definitions:

Ken (Kennan) = beget, bring forth, to breed, hatch out, from Old Latin genere = be born.

The listing under kenning holds three surprises which appear quite unrelated at first sight: (1) a marine measure of about twenty miles (2) prophetic vision, and (3) procreation.

For the first surprise there is a simple explanation. The noun was once used in the sense of recognition at a distance, range or extent of vision, especially at sea; hence, a marine measure of about twenty miles.

Kenning (kening, also kennyng), n. = sight, view, especially, a distant view at sea; procreation.

In a figurative sense, kenning can also carry the meaning of prophetic vision or insight. From the verb to beget to the noun distant view/ prophetic vision it’s a bit of a conceptual leap. It makes more sense if you take into consideration the ‘distance’ between conception and procreation.

Both words are related to procreation on a physical and mental plane. The verb ken conceives, the noun kenning represents the knowledge, at a distance, that sprouts and grows as a result.

Ken (verb) and kenning (noun) are closely related to genus, kind, race, family; genus, gender, generate, kin, kind, kindle.

The English/ Scottish verb ken and noun kenning are such close kith and kin of the German kennen and Kenntnis that the similarity is hard to miss. From this observation, the investigation into the prefix er- is a minor detail.

* note for non-native English readers: ‘at Sea’ is a phrase used here as a metaphor in the sense of confused, perplexed, bewildered, while picking up on the nautical sense of ‘kenning’

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Akenning

about evening we saw, within a kennyng, thick clouds,

which put us in some hope of land.

〰 Sir Francis Bacon 〰

Er- is a common German prefix, used to form related verbs from basic forms. For example, kennen means to know, while erkennen can be described as to come into knowledge. In this case the prefix er- has a causative meaning.

Several English prefixes can be used in an equivalent manner, and as older records reveal, ken (= to beget) becomes aken (= to give birth) with the addition of the prefix a-.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest known use of the noun akenning can be found in the Old English period (pre-1150). The noun was formed from the verb aken (= to bear, give birth to)… Some sources suspect that aken may be related to ache.

Ache [originally ake] to suffer continued pain, can express a longing (heartache), an intense mental or emotional longing for a desired experience (or knowledge?).

The verb aken is formed in analogy to the familiar akin, and carries a related meaning. Akin [contraction a-= of + kin] related by blood, allied by nature.

Erkenntnis captures both, the moment of recognition (conception of new knowledge), as well as the knowing and further discovery of knowledge (acknowledgment of perception) and the continued processing and evolution of knowing.

Erkenntnis ~ as the Tree bearing the forbidden fruit reminds us ~ is inseparably entangled with great sufferings of humankind caught in the act of assimilating knowledge. A continuous aching. In other words, giving birth to knowledge, after taking that first bite, is a painful, laborious task, with which we seem to be burdened forever.

Akenning [or akennyng = German Erkenntnis, noun, feminine] is an old English noun, which has gone extinct and can be revived to cover the whole spectrum of meaning of its cognate German twin.

Akenning is an awakening of a new knowing, without full understanding (yet). It precedes the reasoning Intellect, while stirring a heartache, a passionate longing for the full experience of reaching the shore of knowledge, which has come into distant view.

Pondering this old and new word leaves me wondering, whether we all carry a way of knowing ~ an uncanny akenning ~ akin to an aching, like the baby turtles who are miraculously drawn to the sea to find their way home.

AKENNING
A seed of knowing dropped 
into the fertile sea of human Consciousness,
inseminating conception,
conceiving insemination, 
incubating cognition,
germinating recognition, 
experiencing assimilation,
assimilating experience, 
kindling insight,
breeding dreaming,  
deepening awareness, 
dreaming an awakening,
stirring the dawn of understanding,
aching to give birth to wisdom. 
A seed of the species fallen,
sprouting the ominous Tree of Akenning, 
once upon a paradisiacal shore.

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If something is worth akenning at all,

it is worth kenning well.

〰 paraphrasing Scottish writer Alexander Smith (1830-1867) 〰