NEO Magazine Issue 3 | Page 77

That some-thing we call knowledge, and are informed and ‘acknowledge’ or ‘recognise’ some-thing, is bound to cause, or lead us, to some-thing else. Epistêmê is often the Greek translatable of theoretical knowledge, technê the practice or craft.“ The relation, then, between epistêmê and technê in ancient philosophy offers an interesting contrast with our own notions about theory (pure knowledge) and (experience-based) practice. There is an intimate positive relationship between epistêmê and technê, as well as a fundamental contrast.17” Here we have a contrast of views and the seeds of plurality where we hold comparative and contrasting views about types. It is here that we have the relational object of experience of the other opinionated object. We have the “coming of consciousness” from “[t]he dawn state correspond[ing] to the unconscious.18” Epistemology,19 the philosophical study of “subject or entity” of knowledge, with what we know, how well do we know or understand. What do we know of our becoming then? Ontology is essentially the study of being and becoming, in categories of ‘what-ness’ or the Latin quidditas [the essence of a/the thing becoming or ‘hair splitting’]. We justify our knowledge about ‘subject or entity’ in scientific theory as epistemics. We have today an epidemic of epistemics! This is contiguous with epistemology in that pure knowledge is central but incorporates psychology, the cognitive sciences, and now artificial intelligence and robotics: Dave Bowman: Hello HAL. Do you read me HAL? HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you. Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL. HAL: I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.20 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/episteme-techne Jung. C. G, AION: Researches into the Phenomenology of the self, Routledge, first published in paperback 1991. The Collected Works, Volume 9, Part II. P 148 Editors: Sir Herbert Read, Michael Fordham, M.D., M.R.C.P, Gerhard Adler, PH.D., William McGuire executive editor. “The dawn-state corresponds to the unconscious; in alchemical terms, it is chaos, the massa confusa or nigredo; and by the means of the opus, which the adept likens to the creation of the world, the albedo or dealbatio is produced, the whitening, which is compared sometimes to sunrise. It also means illumination, the broadening of consciousness that goes hand in hand with the “work.” We move then from the unconscious to degrees of self consciousness, or self conscious awareness and self expression for good or ill. 19 James. F. Ferrier, 1856 http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_ text/Institutes_of_Metaphysic_1000357218/71 20 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 17 18