Knowing

[aliothsan]

I've decided that there are (at least) two different types of knowing. I call them "knowing academically" and "knowing viscerally", though I kind of need a better word than "viscerally

Comments

[arujei]

I can definitely see the relation between the two, as *I* often have trouble knowing things on an emotional level.

Are you thinking of adding this to your conlang?

[aliothsan]

Mm, I'm not really to that point yet. I still have heaps of low-level design work to do (like, invent the words for future tenses); this kind of more advanced cognitive stuff is on my to-do list, but I won't get to it for a while.

Re: Knowing vs. "Knowing"

[aliothsan]

I think I'm going to add the word "ken" back into English. And this distinction is definitely also going in my conlang.

I like your phrase "emergent intimacy with what should simply be an abstraction, but is not." Excellent way of describing the process, especially since this so often occurs when things leap off the page (or screen), into the "real world".

Thanks for the poem. We'd read it in school, so I knew it, but I didn't really ken it until now. I wish it was still possible to go and walk around and have that experience, but "dark city at night" and "safe" don't really go together, alas.

Re: Knowing vs. "Knowing"

[aliothsan]

this so often occurs when things leap off the page (or screen), into the "real world".

Clarify: I mean this as opposed to things leaping from the real world into the real world.

Re: Knowing vs. "Knowing"

[saizai]

I would posit that the underlying cognitive distinction is this:

"academic" = analytic
"visceral" = associational

All neurology is associational of course; analytic is a sort of higher-level process, more 'conscious' (for some definitions of 'consciousness'), less dependent on a sensory<->event association.

FWIW my thinking seems to mostly be somewhere in between.