Part of becoming a self-confident learner is to understand the content (specifics) of what you must learn. For example, if you are learning to bake a cake, you must at least (at a minimum) understand that you need ingredients, a baking pan and an oven. Of course, it would also be nice to know the amounts (proportion) of each of these ingredients and when to add each, otherwise your cake might not be very tasty. 

 

Similarly, as a student in academia, as a member of the workforce, or as a professional you need to understand how to communicate in formal English. You will do this in person, with professors, colleagues, customers, clients and patients. You will read books, essays, articles and other sources. You will write essays, answers to test questions, reports, evaluations, presentations, and research papers. This skill extends to communication on the job - with co-workers, bosses, and subordinates (people whom you supervise). Formal language is required in business, in law, and in any activity that requires communication of complex, technical, legal or otherwise important information  

 

In order to communicate with each other, as we have discussed, there must be an agreed upon standard set of sounds and symbols with distinct meanings. We call this language. The formal language of America requires some understanding of American culture, American symbolism and American idiom (see Chapter X for a discussion of idiom – the Greek word for unique or one of a kind). This chapter begins to introduce you to some of the aspects of American culture, symbols and language necessary for your success.

 

Knowledge

 

One of the first cultural definitions to consider is, “What is knowledge?” 

 

When I ask this question in class, students often answer first (initially) with the response: 

 

“Knowledge is facts.”

 

If I ask them to qualify this statement, I usually hear:

 

“Knowledge is true facts or the truth.”

 

Occasionally I get the answer,

 

“Knowledge is wisdom”.

 

Every now and then I encounter the statement,

 

“Knowledge is power”.

 

So, what do you think knowledge is? Is knowledge facts?  Is it truth? Is it wisdom? Is it power? What exactly are these things? And what is the relationship among them? 

 

My favorite story about knowledge and power concerns an ancient Macedonian called Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) He was called the great because he conquered the Persian Empire.

 

Alexander was tutored by our friend Aristotle (see introduction) who was a cataloguer (collector, recorder) of knowledge, and was a collector of information. Aristotle’s teacher had been another Greek philosopher, named Plato (approximately 427-347 BCE). You may have heard of him.  Plato’s teacher was also a philosopher named Socrates (469-399 BCE), who some consider to be the father of knowledge, because of his sacrifice for the right to ask questions to determine the truth.                 

 

You see, Socrates was a teacher in ancient Greece. He taught the youth of the city of Athens. He taught them that the act of asking questions only strengthened one’s beliefs. If one believes that something is true, Socrates taught, then the act of questioning and answering such questions would make much stronger one’s conviction that what one believes is the truth. 

 

Socrates taught that it was good (beneficial) to ask questions about everything, so that one’s knowledge of everything could grow stronger. For example, asking yourself why you love your spouse can result in either a greater appreciation of our spouses (which would make the mutual love stronger) or a recognition that something is lacking (which if communicated to your spouse, and acknowledged, also could make the relationship stronger).

 

However, Socrates’ teaching method caused a problem, because the youth (teenagers) began to question the existence of the gods (the Greeks were polytheistic, they believed in more than one god; monotheistic is the term that designates belief in one god only). 

 

The leaders of Athens became upset and Socrates was arrested for corrupting the morals of the youth of the city. There was a trial and Socrates was found guilty. The Athenians (who were the citizens because Athens was the first direct democracy – all the free Greek males voted) gave Socrates a choice: he could leave Athens forever (called exile) or he could drink poison and die. 

 

Socrates chose to drink the poison, Hemlock, rather than subvert (undermine) the search for truth. That is, instead of leaving his home in Athens, he stayed and sacrificed his life for his beliefs: the best way to search for the truth is to ask questions. Socrates’ way of teaching has become known as the Socratic method.

 

Plato used this method and so did Aristotle. Consequently, in my mind, there is a direct line between knowledge and power: Socrates taught Plato, who taught Aristotle who tutored Alexander, who conquered the world!  

 

Now, it is probably not due only to Aristotle’s tutoring skills (based on what he learned from Plato, who learned from Socrates) that Alexander became the Great. He undoubtedly had other people in his life from whom he learned and a great deal of his own natural abilities. Nevertheless, as the thoughts of all three of these philosophers were passed on to him in a direct line, one could reasonably say that if knowledge is not power, certainly in this case, knowledge became power. So, you decide for yourself whether knowledge is power. Certainly, knowledge can make you powerful (full of power). 

                                    

Is knowledge facts?  Is it truth? Is it wisdom?

 

Let us agree that there is one big thing: which we call reality. (By the way, this is sometimes called doing philosophy.) We all believe that there is one knowable, objective (outside of and independent of ourselves) universe that we perceive subjectively (from within ourselves, through our senses). 

 

In other words, there is one real world, we all live in it; it is the same for all of us, even though each of us interacts with it in their own way. We each develop our own perceptions and our own belief systems. Each of us views the same world through our own unique spectacles, as Immanuel Kant would say.

 

Truth

 

What is truth? When we discussed proof, we defined authorities (sources of facts or truth). One authority that we all recognize today is science.  Scientific truth derives (comes from) the scientific method: experimentation and documentation of results.

 

Many of you are familiar with the term hypothesis. The common definition of this word is an educated guess. The scientific method begins with a working hypothesis, an idea about the truth. This could be truth about how something works, or what will happen if you do something, such as, apply pressure or temperature to some materials in some environment. The recipe for a cake is a hypothesis. You believe (or at least, you hope) that the cake will taste great after baking!

 

The word hypothesis contains the smaller word thesis. This is usually defined as an idea. An antithesis is the opposite of a thesis, the opposite idea. For example, some people think of love as the thesis and hate as the antithesis (opposite). They are said to be antithetical.

 

Synthesis is the joining of two things, two ideas. A German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), envisioned change as occurring according to a pattern of thesis, antithesis, synthesis. That is, something exists (a thesis) and there arises a problem or a challenge (an antithesis). The solution (synthesis) is reached and put into place. The synthesis is now the thesis. Then, inevitably, a new problem arises and the process begins anew.

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The scientist’s hypothesis is an educated guess (a prediction of what will happen). After formulating the hypothesis, the scientist tests the accuracy (truthfulness) through a process called experimentation. Experiments are designed and conducted to test the hypothesis (to see how valid, or true, it is.) For example, baking a cake is an experiment: each time it comes out slightly differently. 

 

The results of the experiments determine the validity (truthfulness) of the hypothesis, which can then become a guide for further action and experimentation.  For example, suppose that when you baked your cake the last time, you didn’t pre-heat the oven and the cake took longer to bake and did not taste as good as usual. You wouldn’t do that again!

 

Let us use an historical example to illustrate experimentation. In the 16th Century, when Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) lived, people commonly believed that heavy objects fell faster than light objects. Galileo questioned this, thinking that, perhaps, all objects fell through the air at the same rate of speed. To test his hypothesis, it is said, he climbed to the top of the leaning tower of Pisa (in Italy) and dropped two balls of different weight. The result was that both the heavier and the lighter weight balls reached the ground at the same time, thus proving his hypothesis that the weight of the object did not affect its rate of descent (fall).

 

When Galileo proved this, he changed what he believed to be true. He changed the scientific understanding of how falling bodies behave. He changed scientific truth.

 

Scientific truth always seeks to explain all of the available facts in the simplest way.

 

That is why scientific truth can change. As human beings learn more facts, we have to find explanations that include them all, and then we have to keep simplifying those explanations. In science, this is often done by examining one’s assumptions, the things one believes without question. You can try this in your private life: remember what Socrates thought about questions, they are a path to the truth.               

 

There is also a concept called ‘relative truth’. This is when the validity (correctness, rightness, acceptability) of something is judged within a real context, rather than not with regard to an absolute rule, standard, or law. In Socrates’ case, for example, one could judge, within the context of Athenian laws, that he was guilty as charged, for what he did was, indeed (truly) against the laws of ancient Athens. It was not true for Athens that one could question the existence of the gods. Therefore, under those laws, by questioning absolute authorities (such as the belief in many gods), he was not teaching the truth to his students. 

 

On the other hand, one could judge that Socrates was truthful by questioning the existence of the gods. One could argue that, despite the fact that it was illegal in ancient Athens, there is a higher truth, an absolute truth, which cannot be hurt by questioning, doubting and investigating. It is this judgment that Plato (and western culture generally) accepts. Consequently, Socrates is often called the first martyr (an individual who sacrifices his or her life for a cause) in the search for truth.

 

Wisdom

 

What is wisdom? Students often answer, experience, knowledge, or having a lot of facts. I always try to get across the idea that wisdom is knowing the limits of our knowledge. Knowing that you only know so much and no more. Knowing where your knowledge stops and where the unknown begins. Knowing that there are things that you don’t know. It is knowing when to ask questions or Look it up! 

 

When you are studying for a degree, for example, you are studying knowledge from a particular point of view or perspective. The truths you learn, the terminology, the ways of thinking, the skills are all going to be slanted from the perspective of the discipline you study (see below for the disciplines). This is both the benefit and the curse of specialization. It will always be your task to overcome the artificial boundaries that separate the branches of knowledge. 

 

As a student, this will require that you be able to transfer the knowledge and skills learned in one classroom to others. When you learn a reading skill, you should understand that this is not merely a reading skill. It is a creative thinking skill and can be applied in any and all situations that thinking is required. This means always, right?

 

Therefore, if you want to succeed as a formal English user or even as a college student, you should always be thinking when you are in class or studying. You should talk with others who are doing the same, and you should discuss ideas and issues with your fellow students. Only in this way, by shifting around the spectacles of Kant through the various filters of the disciplines, can you really master knowledge.

 

Take reading and writing for example. It is clear that these are two sides of the same coin. The writer needs a reader and the reader needs something written to read. That is why reading and writing skills can be mastered together; they are essentially the same task. You must sort out what is being communicated and what needs to be communicated. You must be able to take the knowledge you learn and apply it in different situations. At first this will be in different classrooms and then later it will be in different situations in the real world, outside of the ivory tower, in venues (situations) such as work and family.

 

Therefore, if you want to acquire true wisdom, in my opinion, you will acknowledge that there are things you don’t know and then you will keep this in mind as you go through the world. If you live your life wisely, then you live your life in such a way as to never assume anything that you don’t know for sure. There is a very old joke that says when you assume you make an ass of u and me.  This joke is sarcastic because it contains some truth. 

 

The Sociology of Knowledge

 

When you enroll in college you enroll for a degree program of study: a predetermined set of courses that, when completed earns you a degree: at a two-year or community college, one generally earns an Associates’ degree.  This could be, for example, an Associate’s degree in Arts (A.A.) or Associates in degree in Science (A.S.) or even an Associate’s degree in Applied Science (A.A.S.).  If you continue on to a four-year school, and complete your studies, you will be granted a Bachelorette or Bachelor’s degree in science (B.S.) or the Arts (B.A.). 

 

If you continue your studies, you will earn a Master’s Degree in Arts (M.A.) or Sciences (M.S.).  The highest degrees granted are the doctoral degrees (Ph.D.) in whatever discipline you are studying. 

 

What do these degrees refer to? What do they mean?  There is an old joke among college students, that the B.S. degree is a degree in BS (Bull Shit).  The acronym (a set of letters that stand for a word or phrase) BS is American slang for being able to talk (or write) a lot about something without really saying anything at all (you are probably aware of this).  The joke continues to say that the M.S. degree stands for more of the same (that is, more BS) and that the Ph.D. stands for ‘piled higher and deeper’ (the BS, that is). 

 

There is, once again, much truth in this sarcastic humor. In order to succeed at the college level, and after, one must be able to write and discuss any and all of the issues confronted. 

 

As I have pointed out, this writing and speaking must be in the formal mode: the successful college student must write and speak a certain way in order to be accepted among the academics. After a while, this way of writing and speaking becomes second nature to the college student. It becomes a formula that the student follows, almost without thought. By the time the student graduates, he or she often feels that they could write about anything, even if they know nothing about it! 

 

The truth lies somewhere in between.  

 

While the “D” in Ph.D. stands for ‘doctorate’, the “Ph” stands for ‘philosophy’.  The highest degree in history for example, is called a Doctorate of Philosophy in History. 

 

As noted earlier, the word ‘Philosophy’, in Greek, means “love of knowledge’. The original philosophers were lovers of knowledge (such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle). They studied and asked questions about all things and looked upon all of existence as their area of study.

 

It was not until much later in human history (almost two thousand years later, beginning in the 18th and 19thcenturies) that the ‘one tree of knowledge’ began to divide into different ‘branches’.

 

You need to know that academics think of knowledge as organized as follows:

 

There are three major branches of knowledge in Academia: the Natural Sciences, the Liberal Arts, and the Social Sciences. 

 

What do these names mean? You will notice the word science in two of the categories. There is a reason for this, and it lies in the definition of ‘truth’. 

 

Remember when we discussed the definition of truth above? We defined a special kind of truth, which we called ‘scientific truth’. In human history, scientific truth has led to all manner of inventions (technology) and consequent quality of life enhancements (improvements). The scientific method, the authority that determines scientific truth, has proven to be extremely valuable to human beings, wouldn’t you say?  

 

Even if you don’t value what science has provided humankind, one cannot deny that scientific truth has given rise to all sorts of technology and machinery that have enabled human beings to feed, clothe and shelter themselves in ways never before imagined; and rather efficiently, as well. In fact, people think so much of science that they strive to achieve the same quality of exactness in the all of the ‘truths’ that they study. 

 

Take the curious example of psychology for example. In some colleges and universities, psychology is considered to be a social science and the institution grants a B.A. degree. In other institutions, ‘psychology’ is considered to be a natural science, and a B.S. degree is granted.  

 

In this latter case (the B.S. degree) the institution seeks to raise the respect granted to the discipline of psychology by asserting a standard of truth that is regarded as higher than the standard of truth for the Social Sciences and Liberal Arts. They are saying that psychology is more like a science by grouping the study with the Natural Sciences. At this school, it is thought that the authority of the discipline is enhanced by classifying psychology in this way. 

 

Some people think that if you call something a science, then the results will be more widely believed and more readily accepted. Nevertheless, wherever an institution might locate the department of psychology, and whatever degree is granted, the actual body of knowledge is the same, or should be. Wouldn’t you think? 

 

This is another reason that you are not to use the first and second person pronouns (I, me, my, you, our, we, etc.) in formal writing. Formal learning is the pursuit of the truth. The truth is something that is true independent of the people involved. The truth is not someone’s opinion. Therefore, one should not express “the truth” (formal knowledge) as an opinion. One should not say, “I think that the sky is blue.” One should say, “The sky is blue.” Or one could say, “The sky appears to be blue.”

 

The Natural Sciences got their name from what they study: nature.  A student of physics studies bodies in motion; a student of biology studies living things and a student of chemistry studies matter. 

 

The Liberal Arts got their name from history. The subjects contained herein are all purely creative endeavors: they are substantially (‘to a large extent’) products of the human mind. Liberal means open minded or broad minded or free thinking.  

 

In this use, it is an historic term (a term from history) that at one time referred to individuals who were intellectual explorers (exploring freedom of thought) at a time when intellectual exploration was severely limited, chiefly by institutions of faith (in Europe, the Catholic Church) but also by the political power structure of the time.  

 

These courageous people were not bound by the restrictions of their times and thought about the world in different, new ways. Giordano Bruno was one of these.  

 

And so were Immanuel Kant and John Locke and David Hume (1711-1776), who believed that human knowledge was mostly a matter of habit and belief: we expect the sun to rise tomorrow, because it always has, but we have nothing but our faith to rely on. 

 

This was called a liberal way of thinking: one’s mind is free from the restrictions of our own thought that we impose on ourselves and one’s mind is freed to think thoughts that society discourages us from thinking.

                           

The Social Sciences are the youngest branches of the knowledge tree. They reflect the explosion of information, facts and theories that accompanied the Industrial Revolution of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20thCenturies.  

 

Economics is sometimes said to have begun in 1776 (a fateful year) with the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations.

 

(Look it up!)                      

 

The Natural Sciences, the Liberal Arts and the Social Sciences:

 

The Sciences                                       The Liberal Arts                       The Social Sciences

 

Physics                                          Language & Literature                      Economics

      Astronomy                                           History                                     Political Science

Biology                                                         Arts                                         Sociology

      Medicine                                        Philosophy                                   Psychology

Chemistry                                            Mathematics                              Anthropology

 

Typical Degrees:

 

A.S., B.S., M.S., Ph.D.                    A.A., B.A., M.A., Ph.D.                A.A., B.A., M.A., Ph.D.

 

The Disciplines, the subjects and some typical occupations:

(which often require cross-disciplinary knowledge, that is, 

knowledge of more than one discipline)

 

1. Biology: the study of all living things, 

                     including plants, animal and human beings. 

 

Some occupations:     Medicine (Doctors, Nurses, Technicians) 

                        Veterinary Medicine, Biologist

                        Research, Teacher, Writer

Botanist (works with plants) 

                        

2. Chemistry: the study of matter and its changes

Occupations: Research, Teacher, Writer, Chemical Engineer, Chemist

 

3. Physics: the study of bodies in motion

               Occupations: Research, Teacher, Writer

                        Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Physical)

                        Rocket Science, Astronomy, Physicist

                        Meteorology (Weather forecasting) 

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4. History: the study of the past

Occupations: Teacher, Historian, Writer

            Lawyer/Bureaucrat

                                                Helping professions: Social service/Mental health fields

5. Arts: studies creative expression

Occupations:   Musician, Painter, Sculptor, Performer

                                    Helping professions: Social service/Mental health fields

                                    Teacher, Historian, Writer, Artist

 

6. Philosophy: the study of knowledge

Occupations:   Teacher, Writer, Philosopher

                                    Lawyer/Bureaucrat/Administrator

                                    Helping professions: Social service/

Mental health fields

7. Mathematics: the study of quantitative relationships

Occupations:   Research, Teacher, Writer

                        Statistician, Mathematician

                        

6. Economics: the study of the exchange of 

                                                            goods and services

            Occupations:   Business, Teacher, Writer

            Financial Industry (Banking, Insurance)

            Economist

 

7. Political Science: the study of power relationships

Occupations:   Politics, Business

                                    Lawyer/Bureaucrat/Administrator

                                    Teacher, Writer

 

8. Language & Literature: the study of written and spoken expression

Occupations:   Teacher, Writer, Librarian, Journalism

                                    Lawyer/Bureaucrat/Administrator

                                    Helping professions: Social service/Mental health fields

 

9. Sociology: the study of groups and group behavior

Occupations:   Research, Teacher, Writer

                        Helping professions: Social service/Mental health fields

                                    Lawyer/Bureaucrat/Administrator 

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10. Psychology: the study of the individual mind and individual behavior

Occupations:   Psychologist, Psychiatrist, management, human resources

Social Worker, Teacher, Writer

Helping professions: Social service/Mental health fields

            Lawyer/Bureaucrat/Administrator

 

11. Anthropology: the study of human cultures (past and present)

Occupations    Research, Teacher, Writer, Anthropologist

Helping professions: Social service/Mental health fields

                                    Lawyer/Bureaucrat/Administrator

 

12. Archeology: the study of past human civilization

Occupations    Research, Museums

                                    Teacher, Writer, Archeologist

 

You will notice that every discipline can lead to the profession of teaching and of writing. Everybody always reads.  If you haven’t got it yet, this should certainly clue you in:  Reading and writing abilities are necessary to succeed, and help you take your place, in American society.