Leap into the void

Some years ago I went to an exhibition of Yves Klein's art at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. I loved it. He patented his own colour International Klein Blue (IKB). This is it:

Klein tried to make his audience experience a state where an idea could simultaneously be "felt" as well as "understood"

This concept interests me. I was talking with my Design Research class about Epistemology - especially the idea of different ways of knowing:distinguishing between theoretical reason (knowing that) and practical reason (knowing how) - epistemology is concentrates on theoretical knowledge.

Here's an interesting thing:

Apparently English is one of the few languages that doesn't have a way of distinguishing between these two ways of 'knowing'

In French, for example, to know a person is 'connaître', but if you know how to do something is 'savoir'. In Italian the verbs are 'conoscere' and 'sapere' and the nouns for 'knowledge' are 'conoscenza' and 'sapienza'.

In German it is "kennen" and "wissen." "Wissen" is about knowing something to be a fact, where as "kennen" is knowledge as in being acquainted or having a working knowledge of a subject…

I wonder if the emphasis we place of 'experience' is a consequence of the linguistic twist. The assumption is that we 'know' because we have known. People who are certain in their 'knowledge' are trapped in the past.

Having questions is more important than having answers. Knowledge that doesn't lead to insights or wisdom.

So the question isn't just how do you know but also how do you know you know and what kind of knowledge is it?

Leapt into a void recently?

Comments

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