Epistemology

There must be a hierarchy of need for knowledge. It must start at knowledge that you need to be able to do something that is important to you – like how to hunt for food or how to woo women. This is knowledge that has an immediate practical application.

Second, there must be preparatory knowledge. This is collecting knowledge that you have some good reason to believe that you will need in the future. This may be mastering a skill that is required to be promoted or learning something that can lead to certification.

Third, might be curious knowledge. This is knowledge that is interesting to collect. It provides pleasure to you for learning it, but there is not necessarily anything important to do with it. Knowledge gained from watching any random show in the History Channel might fall into this category. Seeing how the Boston Tunnel was built may never be useful, but it is sure interesting to watch the mess they get themselves into.

Fourth might be esteem knowledge. This is knowledge that is collected in an effort to impress your friends. If you are sports fan you may memorize sports statistics in order to impress fellow friends and fans.

Fifth. After collecting all of this knowledge you might start to think about why you collect this, how was it collected, and what knowledge that you possess can really be trusted. This is epistemology.

How many people make it all the way to #5? Very few are interested in going that far.

Quigong’s Hierarchy of Knowledge:
· Epistemology
· Esteem
· Curious
· Preparatory
· Need