From awareness to action in Latin

Question

Salve! I am trying to say "From awareness to action" and translated it as "Conscientia est actio" - Is that correct? I am creating an organization where I teach skills to be more aware and take action on problems. My Latin has become rusty:) It would be great to get some input from experts...

Another possible candidate could be: ACTIO EX SCIENTIA I think it is important to mention that the meaning of science has changed since Descartes and the goal is to make the quote as authentic as possible. How would, for example, Marcus Aurelius have said it?

Answer 1

Conscientia est actio is grammatically correct, but it means “conscience (or joint knowledge) is action,” which is strange and probably not what you have in mind.

Scientia is not a bad choice. Latin has a few more words of this sort: cognitio, notitia, intellegentia, … It can be hard to make out the nuances from dictionary entries alone. What comes in helpfully is a reference work like Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, which opines thus:

Cognitio is an act of the mind by which knowledge is acquired, whereas notitia and scientia denote a state of the mind […] notitia may be the result of casual perception; scientia implies a thorough knowledge of its object, the result of mental activity.

With that in mind, I would say that notitia is a better fit for awareness.

Hence you could indeed say:

E notitia actio.

(I chose the word order here with the famous “E pluribus unum” in mind.)

Alternatively:

Primum notia, deinde actio.
First awareness, then action.

… or even:

Primum notitia, deinde scientia, postremo actio.
First awareness, then understanding, at last action.