Heavy rains that bring stormy winds with them sometimes interrupt electric power supply to homes in the vicinities where they fall. People in those homes grope in the dark and cannot see their way about. Floods, downpours, fogs and strong winds sometimes affect visibility on motor roads as well, making it difficult for drivers to see their way ahead. All this is physical talk. At the spiritual level, the waters, waves and floods of negative human emotions which sometimes wrack the soul often make it difficult to clearly interpret situations that we experience. When we respond to situations based on negative emotions rather than with proper insight and reason, our spiritual vision is compromised. In the same way that a driver is prone to crashing when they drive in foggy, windy or rainy weather due to poor visibility, so is a soul that reacts emotionally to situations rather than from the informed intellect. The grand design of epistemology in this regard is to supply the individual with the knowledge to deal with "the waters of a river" of the soul, especially when they "encamp like a flood" and make it hard to make spiritual progress. When the darkness of ignorance threatens, practical epistemology makes it possible for the soul to declare like Jimmy Cliff: "I can see clearly now." The power of knowledge drives out the rains of troublesome feelings, leaving only "bright-blue skies." It makes us see the "obstacles in our way" to spiritual progress, and dispels "the dark clouds" of ignorance that obfuscate our vision, rendering it all around a "bright and sunshiny day" instead.
Epistemology so described is the first of two steps to happiness, as we've previously said. It refers to everything we do in the search for truth, and it explains such truth. Epistemology gives us an option to acting solely on unreliable human emotions. It suggests to us that we can act based on reliable information instead. With the truth obtained via epistemology, we can face life situations rationally and soundly, and act in ways that guarantee success and joy. We can live more fully, especially as Socrates declares that a life without reflection is worthless. In this post therefore, we shall attempt a brief introduction to practical epistemology; to help you see the situations in your life more clearly; to hasten you from the dark experience of pouring rain to the bright occasion of seeing the "rainbow you've been waiting for," and subsequently to embracing the clarity and warmth of the "bright and sunshiny day" that is sure to come. With epistemology, you will be able to say in your own life: "Oh yes, I can make it now the pain is gone. All of the bad feelings have disappeared." And the bad feelings, like the stormy weather, will have disappeared because the power of knowledge and insight obtained via epistemology, like the warming rays of bright sunshine, will have removed them completely from your soul. You would then be well on your way to happiness.
Epistemology starts with a desire to know. As you read this, say to yourself, "I want to know." Experience a thirst for knowledge in your soul. Visualize yourself longing for truth. Desire to see your life-path more clearly. Wish for the dark clouds and the storms to fade away. Hope for the bright and sunshiny day ahead. The desire to know that epistemology begins with leads to the gathering and piecing together of bits of information. This may simply be called any of four activities: research, experience, devotion or discipleship. Research or experimentation is one of the ways by which we gather bits of information, and it proceeds by scientific testing. Personal experience is another way to gather information, and it proceeds by picking up sensations through the use of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell. Devotion or habit is a third way of gathering information, and it consists in holding on to attitudes and behaviors that we have practiced for a long time. And discipleship or submission to authority is a fourth way to gather information, and it consists in listening to a guru or teacher.
Different individuals are disposed to conducting epistemology in different ways. Some people may prefer to research. These may be individuals that love to read. Those of you who have seen the movie Matilda, directed by Danny DeVito, recall the scene where the young protagonist responds to her teacher, Miss Honey, "I love to read." People who love to read may feel the need to gather information by themselves from various secondary sources, such as books, magazines, journals and the Internet. They may prefer to work on their own rather than sit at the feet of a guru. These people also conduct scientific tests to verify the information they obtain through critical observation. This method of gathering data is best suited to the physical sciences, but it can also help in the field of natural religion and new thought. Some other people prefer to experience things personally. The saying goes that experience is the best teacher. These individuals, like researchers, also do not like to be told stuff by any guru; they rather want to experience things themselves. When for example the disciples told Thomas they had seen Jesus after the resurrection, he said, "Unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe" (Jn 20:25b).
Still other people prefer to hold on tenaciously to the habits they grew up with. Because age-old experiences seem to be "new every morning" one practices them, we can always gather seemingly new information from habituation, and indeed some tasks are best suited to learning by habit, such as driving a car better, mowing a lawn, shopping at Wal-Mart, and many other tasks which Aristotle places in the realm of Phronesis, or practical wisdom. And some individuals like to learn from teachers or authority figures. They find someone who is wise and accomplished, and become a disciple to such a guru. They listen to and learn from these authority figures. In this regard, remember Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to him. These four methods of conducting epistemology need not all have universal appeal. And so, as you read this, ask yourself which method of conducting epistemology appeals to you the most. It doesn't have to be just one. It could be a combination of two or three methods; indeed, it could even be all of them. Personally, I have been lucky to develop a competency in all four methods of learning: I read as often as I can. Only yesterday for example, I read a hagiography in paperback. I also love to listen to my professors at school, and my pastors at mass, and indeed to spiritual authorities like Iyanla Vanzant and so on. I also crave to learn via personal experience, and this is how I sometimes test the information I obtain from authority; and of course I, like everyone else, have my habits and idiosyncrasies.
There is something called triangulation. What this means is that we can use other methods to verify information obtained from any one of them. For example, if you learn something from a guru, you could proceed to test it out in your own life. This is triangulation of personal experience on discipleship. Or, you could take information obtained from a science lab and run it by a teacher. This is triangulation of authority on research. You could even take information obtained from a teacher and consult with a textbook to see if it is correct. This is triangulation of research on authority, and so on. Triangulation is like asking: "Is it true, really?" Or, "Does it work?" And to benefit from triangulation, we should develop our skills in all four methods of epistemology. Even while obtaining information from the source we are most comfortable with, we should try to break out of our comfort zones and embrace other methods of seeking truth. People who love to apprentice themselves to gurus should also develop their capacity to read and do private research. People who thrive at reading or lab experiments should also pay more attention to gurus and habitual experiences, and so forth. But whatever method or combination of methods used in the conduct of epistemology, the crucial attitude to have is thirst for knowledge; the important posture to adopt is the contemplative one.
In addition to the four methods of data gathering, there is as well the very process itself of thinking, also called reasoning and argumentation. Or, in modern parlance, logic. Aristotle created formal logic so as to help us to think properly. Standard logic is called syllogism, and it usually has three declarative components: major premise, minor premise, and conclusion. The two premises lead to the conclusion. If they are both true, and the syllogism structure is sound, the conclusion will definitely be also true. For example: All people are mortal. Clara is a person. Therefore, Clara is mortal. This is a categorical syllogism. There are also hypothetical and disjunctive syllogisms. Logical thinking may also be either inductive or deductive. If inductive, we reason from particulars to a universal. If deductive, we reason from a universal to particulars. Logic supports our efforts in epistemology, and is a valuable skill to master, especially because it helps us to avoid the many errors there are in reasoning. These errors are known as fallacies. Fallacies may be formal, if they result from the faulty construction of syllogisms. They may also be material, if they result from the very truth or falsity of premises used in syllogisms. A few examples of material fallacies are: slippery slope, bandwagon, ad hominem, hasty generalization, and so on. There are many books on logic. You might want to check with your local library or bookstore.
In any case, the utility of epistemology is the acquisition of truth. We need truth on which to build happiness. People everywhere have always sought truth for the same reason. It will continue to be so. The human quest for knowledge and understanding is insatiable, and epistemology offers significant relief in this regard. It has led to schools of thought and approaches to understanding reality, such as: empiricism, realism, idealism, positivism, pragmatism, rationalism, subjectivism, and so on. Believe me, the number of "isms" there are in philosophy is alarming. If you are a philosophy major, like I kind of am right now, you would appreciate what I'm saying. But if your interest is not to play scholar and pass semester exams, you would best go with a practical approach to epistemology. Read books you love; listen to gurus you admire; watch Oprah's Lifeclass, and listen to authority figures like Iyanla Vanzant, Deepak Chopra, TD Jakes and so on; attend your local church. If you are Catholic and have since lapsed in your faith, resume going to church and listening to priests' homilies. Attend workshops and seminars too. Read the bible. It is the one book that has sold the most number of copies in the history of humanity. No other book comes close. Watch movies. You may want to maintain a Netflix subscription. I know I do. There are many spiritual documentaries on there. I know watching movies may not seem like research or real epistemology, but it is. It sure as hell is. So, watch not only documentaries, but also full length feature films. You can learn a bunch.
In short, practical epistemology is not about cramming tons of textbook stuff. I took theoretical epistemology last semester, and I know how tough it was. Even though I managed to pull off an A on it, I know it wasn't easy. Practical epistemology, conversely, can be cool: You do it at your own pace. You develop your skills in any or preferably all of the four methods of gathering information; you sharpen your reasoning skills, and you expose yourself to sources of information you love and are most comfortable with. In doing all this, you become more astute and more knowledgeable. You begin to build for yourself a practical foundation for happiness. But remember, in addition to all this, that you need to put into practice what you've learned. You don't just acquire knowledge for its own sake. You don't just fill your intellectual bag with brainy stuff; the bag would be heavy that way. Rather, you learn so you can apply what you've learned in your everyday life. Which makes me think that, after the next two posts that are also going to deal with epistemology, we need to have a brief foray into the realm of ethics. We definitely need to learn how to apply the knowledge we pick up along our life-path.
So far today, we have offered a brief introduction to practical epistemology. We have cursorily treated the four methods of data collection, and afforded a brief overview of logic. We have also distinguished between theoretical and practical epistemology and recommended the latter. Above all, we have shown how our conduct of epistemology can deliver us from the raging storms of negative emotions and the behavioral cage they lock us in, by availing us with knowledge tools with which to make sound decisions and deal with the challenges we encounter in our daily lives. We have seen that epistemology helps us to dispel "the dark clouds" that prevent us from spiritual progress, and enables us to "see clearly now the rain is gone." I hope that in reading this post today you do in fact begin to see more clearly the path your soul must take to salvation. But even while you see more clearly the path ahead of you, you must walk it. You cannot know, and then fail to act. You cannot be like the Pharisees who said to Jesus: "We are not blind; we do see clearly," to whom Jesus replied, "If you were indeed blind, you would have no guilt, but since you say you see, your guilt remains" (Jn 9:39-41). And so, we who are blessed with the gift of epistemology should act on what we learn in its conduct, lest we be guilty of the greater sin of negligence, and not only the error of ignorance.
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