I wrote this to simplify some abstract academic concepts (ontology, epistemology, attribution) for myself and my students.
How can we know anything about the world?
Through personal first hand experience of the world and events.
Sensory (sensitive/sensible) knowledge. [why might this be called this?)
We experience through our senses.
- Sight or vision.
- Hearing or audition.
- Smell or olfaction.
- Taste or gustation.
- Touch or tactition.
What kind of knowledge can we gain from these senses?
- We can see how some behave and other responds to that behaviour (social cues)
- We can hear how others speak and copy them (language)
- We can smell if there’s or chemical (is there danger?)
- We taste different flavours
- We can feel heat radiating (the cooker is on, don’t touch!)
There’s also a 6th sense called proprioception. Google it.
And I would argue there is a 7th sense. It’s difficult to name, but it’s often related to intuition and can it’s best exemplified by the feeling when you know you are not alone even though you can’t see or hear someone/something else. Or alternatively, how you know someone was looking at you before you looked at them
I digress.
Can we know things another way without experiencing it?
Yes.
We can know things indirectly through others.
Through language. (I use the term language here broadly).
Other people can tell us about their direct sensory experiences.
In speech, in writing, with gestures, or images.
We also tell others about our direct sensory experiences in the same way.
Groups of people use the same words/gestures to communicate through a spoken/signed language.
But the things we say — or write — and how we put the language together is usually unique to each person.
That’s what makes them yours.
It’s what makes your “voice”. (Or style if you’re a visual artist)
That’s what makes it original.
When one person says or writes something that resonates with us, we like to use their words to help explain what we know to someone else.
This is helpful when we can’t find the right words.
We tend to borrow the words of people we admire or respect.
Because we admire and respect them, we want to honour them.
We don’t want to steal from them.
So, we give them credit for how well they expressed their knowledge.
When you give the original speaker credit (even if they are not there) this makes you admirable and respectable too to the person hearing you.
Adekunmi Olatunji 