Quoteworthy


...quaecumque sunt vera, quaecumque pudica, quaecumque justa, quaecumque sancta, quaecumque amabilia, quaecumque bonae famae, si qua virtus, si qua laus disciplinae, haec cogitate.
-- Phil. 4:8

Johari Window and Epistemology

                        Known to self    Not known to self
                     ---------------------------------------
Known to others      |      Arena      |     Blind spot    | 
                     --------------------------------------- 
Not known to others  |      Façade     |      Unknown      |
                     ---------------------------------------

Johari Window belongs to the field of psychology and the 'rooms' categorise aspects of personality as shown above. However, we can modify a little and apply this to the issue of knowledge, like thus:
                             Awareness         Unawareness
                        ---------------------------------------
Knowledge possessed     |        1        |         2         | 
                        --------------------------------------- 
Knowledge not possessed |        3        |         4         |
                        ---------------------------------------

Shall we dub this Epistemological Window? Now, this is going to get a little bit confusing, so read closely:
1. Things that you know you know
The body of your cognitive knowledge. Facts that you have learned, conscious reasoning, conscious perceptions from the senses. 
2. Things that you don't know you know
I believe that the thing we call intuition is the sum of subconscious reasoning. Somehow the vibes and nuances are too subtle, too weak to be picked up by the conscious, so it sinks underwater to the lower part of the iceberg. It stays there until somehow it floats up again changed, as an inexplicable feeling. Intuition, gut feeling, sixth sense, whatever you call it, I believe that belongs to this category. My sense of direction is not, though.
3. Things that you know you don't know
Gaps in your body of knowledge. Of course you don't really know in literal sense what the gap is, because that's missing. What I mean here is that you recognise from the context, or the surrounding information, that there is a missing part. Being aware of this niche is what I mean by 'knowing' it.
4. Things that you don't know you don't know
Ignorance, basically. 
Joking aside, these also include things for which the framework of knowledge around them has not been established (you cannot be aware of the gaps because there is a gaping abyss there).
These may also include things beyond the limits of our mind itself, like God. Sure, there are some things we know about Him, but there are things that we don't obviously. And for some of those, we don't even know that we don't.

Like the psychological Johari Window, classifying our knowledge and unknowledge helps to understand ourselves better. We are recalling and acquiring #1 and discovering #2 everyday. Scientists strive to fill in on #3 and uncover #4.
How is your Epistemological Window?

Nothing matters except knowing nothing matters.
-- Fiyero in Wicked (Dancing Through Life)

Wisdom is knowledge plus: knowledge -- and the knowledge of its own limits.
-- Victor E. Frankl 

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