Scientia potentia est A Sponti (Außerparlamentarische Opposition) version of the slogan is "Wissen ist Macht, nichts wissen, macht auch nichts", a pun about the previous motto along the line "Knowledge is power, but being ignorant doesn't bother anyway". Joschka Fischer and Daniel Cohn-Bendit belong to those Spontis that nevertheless held powerful positions, in Fischer's case with no more formal education than a taxi driver's licence. The German Bundeswehr Bataillon Elektronische Kampfführung 932, an electronic warfare unit based in Frankenberg (Eder), still uses the Latin version "Scientia potentia est" as its motto. Though its meaning varies from author to author, the phrase often implies
George Berkeley he wrote, using a combination of Latin and English, "esse is percipi" (to be is to be perceived), most often if slightly inaccurately attributed to Berkeley as the pure Latin phrase "esse est percipi." The phrase appears associated with him in authoritative philosophical sources, e.g., "Berkeley holds that there are no such mind-independent things, that, in the famous phrase, esse est percipi (aut percipere) – to be is to be perceived (or to perceive)." Hence, human knowledge is reduced to two elements: that of spirits and of ideas ("Principles" #86). In contrast to ideas, a spirit cannot be perceived. A