What is innocence?

Question

Not referring to the legal sense of the word. Before you simply answer with 'innocence is pure' or something simplistic please take into account other questions, like why is it considered pure? Is it only or mainly reserved for children? If so, why children?

Should or can one embark on a mission to get it?

Answer 1

This is many questions, all of which can only be answered subjectively. So, in my opinion-

1) Innocence is the ignorance of knowledge or ideas that are deemed harmful by your culture or system of beliefs.

2) "Purity" is a lack of contamination, which can be applied to people's thoughts depending on the nature of such thoughts and the culture and beliefs of the person doing the judging.

3) The virtue of innocence is reserved for those who are seen as easily corruptable - those who need to be protected from contaminating ideas. This usually applies to women and children, and mostly in sexual/religious contexts.

4) Parents protect their children from ideas that could prevent them from fitting in with other people's children and society, so that they develop to become "normal" social beings and do well in life. A degree of innocence is therefore desirable in children as long as a) other children are ignorant of those facts/ideas and b) society expects them to be innocent of them.

5) It is impossible to teach innocence because innocence is a lack of teaching. It is possible to teach someone to reject potentially harmful ideas so they may remain "pure", but this impedes the ability to judge ideas purely based on their merit. Not thinking about things could, for example, cause someone to get right and wrong mixed up (eg, the 9/11 hijackers were "innocent"). For this reason, in my opinion, innocence of something is only wonderful because of the future joy of discovery of truth. This all makes my own innocence something worth discovering but not protecting.

Answer 2

innocents means pure (as u said) but in another sense its also ignorance, as in they areant aware of bad or good things that are happening that may be a double standard, so that's why its mostly reserved for children most of the time.
you cant embark on it cause once you know your innocents is gone

Answer 3

I would define innocence as “the beginning”.

We begin life without knowledge, without mistrust, without guilt or infraction.

What is the attraction of innocence?

It is difficult to put into words. What draws us to new life? Children. Flowers. Animals. Are we like writers, who delight in the unexplored possibilities of a blank page? Are we measuring our progress? Are we hypnotized by the never-ending circle? Perhaps we need the knowledge that *Life* will continue, even if *we* will not.

Would I desire a return to innocence?

Of the *mind*—surely not. But the *heart* is another matter...

Answer 4

For one, innocence is ignorance or naivety, but not in a negative way. It's like the people of Pleasantville (if you've seen the movie), who aren't aware of reality of life or human nature. Having said that, I don't think it applies only to children. I wouldn't equate "pure" with "innocence" either. "Pure" is a little too holy to apply to humans to me.