A Short Hierarchy Of Knowledge
(definition: hierarchy – ordered priority, one above another; seniority)
You are probably familiar with an elementary evolution of knowledge, usually attributed to Jalaludin Rumi (Persian, 13th Century, Sufi mystic and poet), which progresses as follows:
- Knowing and knowing that you know
- Knowing and not knowing that you know
- Not knowing but knowing that you don’t know
- Not knowing and not knowing that you don’t know
Jalaludin Rumi
Level 4, of course, is a dangerous degree of ignorance. It could get you into trouble, whereas level 3 might not. When a person knows what they don’t know, at least they can take steps to remedy the deficit. But generals in battle, who think they know when they don’t, can get a lot of soldiers killed unnecessarily.
Thanks to the current education system, which teaches meaningless “realities” that cover up ignorance of actuality and life, most people complete their schooling at level 4, rather than level 1, which is where they should be.
In fact this simple hierarchy can be expanded considerably, to become an almost infinite series of gradations that could be considered a true Hierarchy Of Knowledge and this scale is the key to a great deal of effective and powerful knowledge.
I have a whole-hour talk on this theme in my “New Thought Horizons”, entitled “PowerLogic”. Here I have simplified it down and am sharing a few notes.
Let’s take a look…
Incremental Scale Of Logic
Briefly, a scale is anything which increases by small incremental stages, such as going from bad to good by small degrees; or black to white, via many shades of grey in between. A music scale, of course, is just such a step-wise progression: in Western music actually 8 main steps or 12 half steps.
Implicit in this scheme is the fact that absolutes are unattainable. In terms of knowledge – however much you know, you can always know more.
This sort of graduated, infinite-value scale is sometimes also known as “Infinity valued logic”, a term coined by Alfred Korzybski. He assigns this to a newer “Einsteinian” universe, as opposed to an older “Aristotelean” universe way of thinking. Aristotle the Greek was stuck on dichotomies or pairs of opposites: right-wrong, good-bad and so on.
Dichotomy is a neat concept; we are all taught it at school, as if it were gospel or law. But it’s W-R-O-N-G in most situations in life. That’s one of the reason we keep falling over with our values and emotional attachments. We try to make them fit a scheme, which is inoperative in the territory of the mind!
Hierarchy Of Knowledge
A slightly amplified hierarchy of knowledge (but still less complete than the one given in my Guru Express) would go something like this:
- Being
- Know
- Look
- Know about
- Think
- Symbols
- Can’t see
- Substitute knowledge
- Invented knowledge
- Mystery
Being
Highest in this system to knowledge is “being” something. It would become, quite literally, a part of one’s being. Mother tongue would be a good example of this order of knowledge. A musical instrument can be learned to this level and this is the essence of artistic mastery. The virtuoso performer IS his instrument.
People in love we often say are being “as one” and this certainly entails a very high degree of togetherness, knowing and understanding.
To Know
Know is less than being but to have total certainty on data, which is owned. A learned foreign language or a subject studied to expertise would come into this class, as opposed to mother tongue.
It is gained by direct personal experience.
Look
Look is the first degree of detachment from knowledge. There is an implied separation from data in looking at it; one has to be outside it to look at it. Thus a little unreality enters in here. We are getting at it from somewhere else, instead of right inside where the data sits.
However it demands an openness and willingness to learn, which is why it appears so high on this scale. It corresponds to knowing one doesn’t know.
Know About
When this falls away a little more, there comes know about, which is factual data but second-hand; not coming from one’s own certainty. People might say “I know about that.” It isn’t the same as saying “I’m into it…”
A man who has read about Africa and can quote all the travelogue data but has never been there cannot rise above this level till he has.
Think
Intellectual thinking is a considerably lower level of knowledge.
It isn’t based on any kind of real-time actuality but on mental masses, energies and spaces etc. It is hung up in the words and meanings and has lost touch with essential nature. And so more unreality has crept in. We even have the expression “I think that….” which means that we don’t really know.
Thoughts are a kind of substitute, which naturally leads on to the next class down:
Symbols
Symbols are just a substitute for true knowledge; they represent something but are not actually that thing. An example would be a chemical formula. It depicts certain items of content and appears to represent structure but it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we don’t really know the nature of atoms and compounds properly. Chemical symbols are a guess.
Religious ritual and symbols are really a substitute for transcendent knowledge of God or the Supreme Being which, factually, is lacking.
Can’t See
The next level we call “blind” in want of a better term. It is, of course, the exact reverse look above. The individual isn’t only refusing to see truth and knowledge but not capable of doing so.
This corresponds to level 4 above “Doesn’t know he doesn’t know”. Here we have bigotry, which will not see outside its own exasperating narrow values.
False Knowledge
False knowledge (that which isn’t) is one of the most destructive aspects of human living. I have introduced the term hoax, meaning a kind of false data which has gained wide currency and is accepted generally as ‘fact’, but which is very destructive.
If you are to get better outcomes in life and find the degree of success and happiness you are looking for, you are going to have to learn to detect and ruthlessly eliminate hoaxes from your mindset.
Worse still is invented knowledge. This means deliberately manufactured false data. It is intended to steer an individual away from the truth and so into harm.
At this level we have lies, propaganda and manipulation of truth. “Spin doctoring” is a word given to the world by the White House, meaning to gloss over the blatant falsehoods of politicians with cosmetic lies.
Mystery
This is pretty plain. It’s kind of UN-knowledge. But let me tell you that just about everything wrong with the world and wrong with your life and everything around you comes down to UN-KNOWNS. What is wrong with you is something unknown.
You don’t know how to fix it, otherwise you would do so = unknown.
The Truth Is What You Know
Most professors and authorities in the field of the mind, psychology, education and the Humanities lie at 9 – 10. They are not up to confronting Man as he really is. They would rather confront figures, statistics and theories than real people.
But don’t get smug: much of the New Age and esoteric healing is no higher than symbols and some of it down at false knowledge and invented knowledge.
What Does This Simplified Scale Tell You?
Firstly that there is no higher knowledge than that which you own for yourself. Information from others is, at best, know about and is a poor degrade of the truth. It does not matter what Professor Blod says, he cannot connect with the truth for you.
All the education in the world can only be a means of learning where to acquire facts. Real knowledge is found only within you.