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Ideas for 'works', 'Elbow Room: varieties of free will' and 'Daodejing (Tao Te Ching)'

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3 ideas

11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 1. Knowledge
To know yet to think that one does not know is best [Laozi (Lao Tzu)]
     Full Idea: To know yet to think that one does not know is best.
     From: Laozi (Lao Tzu) (Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) [c.530 BCE], II.LXXI.173)
     A reaction: Tricky. Self-deception doesn't sound like a virtue to me. There are epistemic virtues, and caution about one's own knowledge has to be one of them, but a totally false assessment sounds counter-productive.
Pursuit of learning increases activity; the Way decreases it [Laozi (Lao Tzu)]
     Full Idea: In the pursuit of learning one knows more every day; in the pursuit of the Way one does less every day.
     From: Laozi (Lao Tzu) (Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) [c.530 BCE], II.XLVII.108)
     A reaction: Everything in my culture has raised the status of the pursuit of learning, so that I can hardly comprehend what is proposed by the Way. I don't believe that the Way can be achieved without great learning, but one might move beyond learning.
For Aristotle, knowledge is of causes, and is theoretical, practical or productive [Aristotle, by Code]
     Full Idea: Aristotle thinks that in general we have knowledge or understanding when we grasp causes, and he distinguishes three fundamental types of knowledge - theoretical, practical and productive.
     From: report of Aristotle (works [c.330 BCE]) by Alan D. Code - Aristotle
     A reaction: Productive knowledge we tend to label as 'knowing how'. The centrality of causes for knowledge would get Aristotle nowadays labelled as a 'naturalist'. It is hard to disagree with his three types, though they may overlap.