The size of thoughts (was wenlin and translation)

[Guest guest]

Emmanuel,

 

The ancient Greeks had three words

that are all translated into English

as " know " but which each mean distinctly

different things. The question you

ask your students about knowing their

mothers' faces reminded me of this;

and it seems to me that a differentiation

between these three aspects of knowing

might help with respect to various

threads that we have going concerning

knowledge, education, etc.

 

The kind of knowledge that you

ask your students about with respect

to knowing their mothers' faces is

what the Greeks called " gnose " .

 

From this Greek word we get English words

like " cognition " , " recognition " , etc. It

is the kind of knowledge that you

don't have to think about. No computation

is required, obviously, to recognize

one's mother's face.

 

Another kind of knowledge the Greeks

recognized was described by the

word " skene " from which are derived

words like " scene " " science " among others.

 

This is the kind of knowledge that one

gets by looking and sorting things

that one sees into organic categories.

 

The third Greek word that gets lumped

into English " know " is " mathein "

from which the English word " mathematics "

is derived.

 

The knowledge obtained by this method

is what we call reckoning, i.e.,

computing, calculating, etc.

 

Thoughts, at least according to the

ancient Greeks, not only had sizes

but shapes and other qualitites that

required the coining of separate words

to express.

 

Of course there are many other ways

to know, and when you think about it

it seems that each and every act of

knowing is a distinct experience.

But of course we can't be making up

words for each and every experience

we have...otherwise the whole notion

of language would melt into meaningless

sounds and images.

 

 

Which is just about what Chinese looks

and sounds like...

 

....unless you take the time to learn

the meanings of each stroke and

the various patterns into which

they are arranged in order to

represent the different kinds of

knowledge that the ancient Chinese

were concerned with.

 

The outcome of knowing this is simply

that: knowing.

 

Perhaps the greatest pleasure.

 

Certainly a boon to anyone who wants

to do anything remotely like intervening

in another individual's life processes.

 

Ken