Reading Begets Knowing, Writing Begets Uderstanding

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

Reading Begets Knowing, Writing Begets Understanding

Knowing is like day breaking, understanding is like lightening striking.

Comprehension is the payoff for struggle. There is a hierarchy of comprehension. Like a pyramid with the base being awareness, followed by consciousness then comes knowledge with understanding at the pinnacle of the pyramid.

Reading is the key to knowing and essay writing is the canvas for creating understanding.

Of all the creatures perhaps humans are the only ones who fail to live up to their potential. Obesity is the evidence of a lack of physical endeavor and boredom is the consequence of a lazy brain.

“Reading is fundamental.” Essay writing is the art and science of creation.

2

coberst:
I agree with you very much - although I would expand essay writing to include other forms of writing, and to include dialogue.

It sucks to have to eat my words - I always hated writing during my education and have complained prodigiously. I still hate writing for marks - but you’re right - it is an excellent step towards creating genuine understanding.

cheers,
gemty

3

gemty

As you say dialogue with the associated dialectic reasoning is very important and it seems that there is little interest by our elites in trying to develop more focus upon this matter.

4

what makes philosophy different than liturature???

5

I once asked a philosophy professor “What is philosophy about?” He said philosophy is “radically critical self-consciousness”. This was 35 years ago. Only in the last five years have I begun to understand that statement

I took a number of courses in philosophy three decades ago but it was not until I began to study and understand Critical Thinking that I began to understand what “radically critical self-consciousness” meant.

I consider CT to be ‘philosophy light’. CT differs from other subject matter such as mathematics and geography in that it requires, for success, that the student develop a significant change in attitude.

Anyone who has been in military service recognizes the significant attitude adjustment introduced into all recruits in the eight weeks of boot camp. During the first eight weeks of military service each recruit is introduced to the proper military attitude. During the eight weeks of basic training there is certain knowledge and skills that the recruit learns but primarily s/he undergoes a significant attitude adjustment.

I would identify the CT attitude adjustment to be a movement from naïve common sense realism to critical self-consciousness. It is necessary to free many words and concepts from the limited meaning attached by normal usage—such a separation requires that the learner hold in abeyance the normal sort of concept associations.

The individual who has made the attitude adjustment recognizes that reality is multilayered and that one can only penetrate those layers through a critical attitude toward both the self and the world. To be critical does not mean to be negative, as is a common misunderstanding.

If we were to follow the cat and the turtle as they make their way through the forest we would observe two fundamentally different ways that a creature might make its way through life.

The turtle withdraws into its shell when it bumps into something new, and remains such until that something new disappears or remains long enough to become familiar to the turtle. The cat is conscious of almost everything within the range of its senses, and studies all it perceives until its curiosity is satisfied.

Formal education teaches by telling so that the graduate is prepared with a sufficient database to get a job. Such an education efficiently prepares one to make a living, but this efficiency is at the cost of curiosity and imagination. Such an education does not prepare an individual to become critically self-conscious.

If we wish to emulate the cat rather than the turtle we must revitalize our curiosity and imagination after formal education. That revitalized curiosity and imagination, together with self directed study prepares each of us for a fulfilling life that includes the ecstasy of understanding.

I think that radically critical self-consciousness combines the attitude adjustment of CT and combines it with the curiosity of the cat and then takes that combination to a radical level.

A good place to begin CT is: bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Educ/EducHare.htm

6

so we should be consistant in our analysis of any work. and treat every philosophy in an unbiased, critical mannor? that our philosophical beliefs should be evolving with us as we try to keep as much certainty and do away with as much uncertainty as possible?

7

so we should be consistant in our analysis of any work. and treat every philosophy in an unbiased, critical mannor? that our philosophical beliefs should be evolving with us as we try to keep as much certainty and do away with as much uncertainty as possible?

8

Thank you so much Coberst for the reading, I am glad you “understand”.