Ways of Knowing

45.301
Spring 2009

Robert E. Innis

 

"The phenomenon of human knowledge is no doubt the greatest miracle in our universe. It constitutes a problem that will not soon be solved…"
(Karl Popper, Objective Knowledge, Preface)

 

 

The course will explore what is involved in asking and attempting to answer the following three pivotal, and intertwined, questions:

 

  • What happens when we know?
  • Why is that knowing?
  • What do we know when we know?

 

These three questions will lead us to ask a series of other interlocked questions, dealing with the ‘meaning of knowing’ and the ‘knowing of meaning.’

 

  • What are the chief exemplars of knowing, authentic instances of knowing?

 

  • Are there different kinds or modes or levels of knowing? Where would we look to find this out? Is there a unified model of knowing or are there multiple models? How, exactly, do they significantly differ from one another? How are they related to one another? Are there invariant features to knowing, rooted in certain invariant features of consciousness and awareness?

 

  • How does knowledge ‘arise’? What are its ‘originating and enabling conditions’ and what are its ‘constraints’? To what degree is knowing—as the grasp of meaning and meaning-structures—rooted in body-based structures on the one hand and symbolic structures on the other? Are there ‘limits’ to knowing?

 

  • What kinds of methods do human beings employ in trying to come to know (or construct) the ‘world’ and to ‘fixate’ their belief systems? What are their relative ranges and validities? What is the nature and meaning of truth? What are the purposes, goals, or aims of knowing? Is there, for example, an intrinsic conflict between science and religion?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course outline and order of readings

 

 

1.         The Divided Line and the Functional Circle

            (a) Plato’s Divided Line Schema

            (b) J. von Uexküll’s Schema of the Functional Circle

 

2.         Consciousness and the Perceptual Field

            (a)       William James, Stream of Consciousness

            (b)       John Dewey, Reflex Arc; Qualitative Thought

            (c)        Michael Polanyi, Knowing and Being (chs 13, 9,10,11)

 

3.         Embodied Knowing as Meaning-Making

            (a)       R. Innis, Peirce and Polanyi on Perception and Meaning

            (b)       Mark Johnson, The Meaning of the Body

            (c)        Michael Polanyi, ‘Sense-Giving and Sense-Reading’ (ch 12)

 

4.         Art as a Form of Knowing

            (a)       J. Gilmour, Picturing the World

            (b)       R. Innis, Dimensions of an Aesthetic Encounter

            (c)        M. Merleau-Ponty, Cézanne’s Doubt

 

5.         Science, God, and Religion

            (a)       C. S. Peirce, Fixation of Belief

            (b)       M. Polanyi, ‘The Unaccountable Element in Science’ (ch 8)

            (c)        J. Polkinghorne, Belief in God in an Age of Science

 

 

Texts to be downloaded and printed from my website and the course web page:

 

http://faculty.uml.edu/rinnis/

 

Plato on the divided line

Schema of the divided line

The Functional Circle

 

Required texts: North Campus Bookstore

 

Michael Polanyi, Knowing and Being. University of Chicago Press

Mark Johnson, The Meaning of the Body. University of Chicago Press

John Gilmour, Picturing the World. SUNY Press

John Polkinghorne, Belief in God in an Age of Science. Yale University Press

 

Course requirements: a minimum of three blocks of written assignments principally in the form of take-home examination papers and self-directed critical and analytical essays, totalling between 15 and 20 pages in all. Students are expected to attend the classes and participate in the discussions. Class participation will be taken into consideration when the final grades are calculated. Excessive absences will entail forfeiture of comments on papers and the right to consultation during office hours. The class periods are the primary work space of the course and you should avail yourself of this time.

Office: Olney 102c
Office hours: TR 2:30–4:30, and by appointment
Tel: 2532
email: Robert_Innis@uml.edu